


Stories from Diamond Academy

by JoyHeart



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: All girls school, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Anxiety, F/F, I just want Jasper to be good, Lesbians, Slice of Life, Trigger warning homophobia in some chapters, Trigger warning mentions of past abuse in some chapters, Trigger warning transphobia in some chapters, ace!amethyst, agender!Sapphire, aro!peridot, bisexuals, but also a lot of rich snooty people, elitism, nonbinary!Ruby, pearl and rose is the cheesiest pairing but i like cheese sometimes, poly!Lapis Lazuli, poly!Rose Quartz, probably the most ooc is Jasper, trans!Jasper, trans!Pearl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2018-04-24 22:15:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 50,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyHeart/pseuds/JoyHeart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Diamond Academy is the most prestigious all-girl boarding school in the world. The school takes in the daughters of diplomats, spies, heads of state the world over. All the same, every year the school accepts a small number of scholarship students who are recommended by existing alumni or who win certain contests the school hosts.</p><p>Pearl is grateful to have been accepted to Diamond Academy, even if it was only so that the Quartz family could have peace of mind that their eldest daughter would be safe at her new school with someone to watch over her and report back to her family. But would she be able to fit in among even the other scholarship students, let alone an entire school of students far above her station? </p><p>Diamond Academy is a strict environment, but with girls like these running down the halls, there's bound to be fun lurking in the corners! Follow Pearl and her classmates as they live, learn, love and laugh. And maybe have a little drama. Or a lot of drama. Hey, it won't be easy, but they're not going to do it alone!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Day

                In the world of Academia, Diamond Academy was possibly the most prestigious all-girl boarding school there was. While in the past the academy was used to raise girls who would go on to marry the most powerful and influential men of the time, after the first generation of girls left its walls that changed rather quickly, and ever since the ladies who exited this place as graduates would go on to work as spies, world leaders, military strategists, CEOs and more. But graduates of such caliber came from strong clay, and in order to be admitted to this school one usually had to either be related to an alumni or come from an otherwise powerful family. And even then, the girls would still have to pass rigorous entrance exams in order to make it in. That said, if there were girls in the world who came from less prestigious backgrounds who excelled in something enough to catch the attention of school officials  they might be awarded a scholarship, but that was far less common, and only offered a limited amount of spots in each year of the school.

                Which is why Pearl wondered again, as she got out of her (far too expensive!) taxi in front of large stone main building of the campus on the day of her orientation, how a simple girl like her had managed to get accepted. She had only just managed to pass the entrance exams, and she knew she wouldn’t have ever gotten in at all if it wasn’t the Quartz family that had requested she be admitted. As to why that had been well… it was sort of silly when she thought of it now. Her family had of course served the Quartz family for generations, and she had no intentions of rising beyond her station on her own, but as their eldest daughter was going to the academy this year and her parents were protective, they had approached Pearl and requested she apply to the academy, assuring her there would be no issue in being accepted as long as she passed the entrance exam. They explained that they worried for Rose’s safety and wanted Pearl to go along with her to protect her and support her in a new environment.

Pearl thought she was an odd choice, but didn’t argue it and accepted the honour seriously. She had studied so hard for that exam… but in the end she simply hadn’t yet had the education to be able to pass with a very high mark. She had to work hard to keep her grades high enough to stay at the school, while watching out for Rose at the same time.

Swallowing nervously, but trying to act determined none the less, Pearl hurried through the doors of the main building, pulling her luggage behind her as she approached the main desk alone. She thought at first that it was strange she would not be accompanying Rose Quartz to the campus, and had anxiously asked her mistress Mrs. Quartz about it but had been quickly admonished, informed that Rose could not be seen coming to school with a servant, that she was to stay in the dorms with the other scholarship students, and that she was to watch over Rose Quartz from afar, interfering only when necessary and making frequent reports back to the Quartz family of her activities and wellbeing.

Of course all this made perfect sense! Pearl knew that a beautiful, kind and talented young lady such as Rose would not want anything to do with a plain girl like her anyway. And so, Pealr cleared her throat, awkwardly, as the well-dressed woman behind the counter leaned over to look at her with a raised eyebrow. It was true that, although Pearl was wearing what would equivalent her “Sunday Best”, she was dressed far plainer than the other girls that were practically floating around her.

“One of the scholarship students I assume? That’s the last of you then, Pearl… Perle?”

                “Ah ha, yes, well, it’s actually a funny story about that! You see, Perle is Pearl in German, and my father, well, he came from a line of Oyster harvesters actually, and-“

                “Listen, Miss Perle, I have a lot of young ladies with much more impressive lineage they like to flaunt in front of me, and honestly? I don’t need to pretend to be nice with you so your parents don’t complain. So here’s your room assignment, far south wing, your roommate should already be there and the other two scholarship students are across the hall from you, so how about you bore them with your oyster farming family stories.”

                “Oh!” Pearl blushed brightly, knowing she had let her mouth run off again. She HAD to stop doing that, it was undignified! “Yes, of course, thank you.” She took the folder she was given as well as the small bag of Gem Academy pins, calendars, club lists and maps that was given to each student. Consulting the map briefly, she slowly made her way through the halls looking for her dormitory, eventually leaving the main building and crossing a courtyard. She did note with growing apprehension that she couldn’t make out an actual building in the direction she was heading, and given that most of the structures on campus were tall and imposing that made her unsure if she was actually going in the right direction. But triple checking the map still pointed this way, and after passing through a grove of trees planted near the edge of the courtyard, Pearl was surprised to see what looked to be a small, single storey house. It was simple, but seemed well kept, if obviously out of the way. Over the door was a plaque reading “Welcome to Our First Year Scholarship Students, Your Home Away from Home. Always Aspire to Greatness.”

                Pearl hesitantly opened the door and entered, discovering an equally simple layout inside. There was a small common room area furnished with two couches, a coffee table and a small television, an attached kitchenette, and a short hallway with a bathroom at the end and a closet. On the opposite side of the common room from that were two doors that presumably led to bedrooms, marked 1 and 2. Pearl would be in the first one. She did notice that there was some sounds of talking coming from the door marked 2 and the door was open just a crack but Pearl wasn’t _quite_ up to talking to her other house mates before she had even seen her roommate… oh, she hoped it was someone nice, studious, quiet… not judgemental… didn’t ask too many questions… that would be ideal. She shivered a bit before fumbling with her key and opening the door to her room.

                It was a very simple area. An open space with two beds, two desks and two side tables underneath two windows across the room from one another like mirror images. Perfect symmetry. She could see a suitcase with strange tiger-like stripes on it at the foot of the bed nearest the door. So, her roommate had arrived but hadn’t unpacked yet. Well, strangely coloured suitcase aside… the room was good.

                Pearl blinked, and felt a small smile tugging at her lips. Yes, it was smaller than the other buildings on campus. Obviously the more elite students wouldn’t want to be too close to those who had… who had yet to prove their worth. They would likely have to clean the place themselves, but that was fine by Pearl! She actually quite liked cleaning! And it was secluded, a quiet place to study! Yes, this would do nicely. As long as her other roommate was nice and quiet and-

                “HEY, FRESH MEAT!” came a loud yell from behind her, and Pearl spun on her heel in shock to see a girl with long messy blonde hair and wearing a bright purple sweatshirt making a dash toward her as though to tackle her. Taking a graceful step to the left, Pearl avoided the assault and the girl tumbled forward, slamming down on the bed with the tiger stripe suitcase rather hard. “OOF! Woah, girl has aversion SKILLS! Nice, nice. Hey, nice to meet you, I’m Amethyst! Put ‘er there pal!” the girl struggled to sit on the bed and stuck out a hand to Pearl, who was rather taken aback by this sudden display.

                “Oh, er, charmed,” Pearl said carefully, reaching out to shake the hand offered. The girl shook hard and fast, and Pearl was sure her teeth rattled from the force of it.

                “Phht, charmed? You sound just like those snooty richy rich girls living it up in the _nice_ buildings with maids and stuff. Not that I care, I hate it when other people try to clean up after me, I have a system!” Amethyst huffed, then grinned again. “So what’s your story? Scholarship obvs, but like, what for?”

                “O-oh! Um, j-just a scholarship! You know, uh,” Pearl hadn’t planned on being questioned so early about this! “I- um… I’m good at math!” Pearl blurted, and then fought to hide a wince. She… well it _was_ her strongest subject, but she certainly wasn’t good enough at it to be offered a scholarship _HERE_ of all places!

                “Yeah?” Amethyst said with wide eyes, “Huh, I guess I figured you were a nerd. Phht, okay well, you’d probably get along with Perry then. HEY PERRY!”

                “What? I’m trying to set up my desktop! Lousy building only had two electrical sockets per room…” a nasally voice called back from the other room. Pearl could only presume that Amethyst had been next door talking to their neighbour and heard her come in.

                “COME MEET THE NEW GIRL, _DUH_! You’ll like her, she’s a nerd like YOU!”

                There was some scuffling, and another blonde head poked around the door frame. This one was a more yellow-blonde, and her green eyes were bright and interested.

                “You’re also into computers?”

                “Uh, no, um… math?” Pearl said awkwardly. Perry snorted.

                “Oh, a ‘traditional’ nerd. Whatever. I’m Peri _dot_ ,” the girl said as she shot Amethyst an annoyed look, “And you are…?”

                “Pearl! I-I’m Pearl.”

                “Cool, so, math scholarship, computer scholarship,” Amethyst laughed, “What was the other one, um, kinesiology? So two nerds and a jock. Whatever.”

                “Well, what are _you_ here for, then?” Pearl said, coming out a lot more scathing than she wanted but well, this girl was so… so unseemly! Even the other one, well, she was… unrefined but nothing as bad as this-

                “Me? Er,” Amethyst looked away for a second, flushing a little bit, “Um, it’s kind of dumb, but my teachers liked some of my essays on like, political issues and stuff, so they talked to my mom and made me enter a dumb essay contest and I won and well, I didn’t actually want to come all the way here but my mom was like ‘BUT IT’S SUCH A GREAT OPPORTUNITY, AMETHYST!’” Amethyst mimicked in a screechy voice, “And she shipped me off here.”

                “Wait, _you_ won the essay contest to get into Diamond Academy?” Pearl was shocked. That contest… it was held every year, but truthfully it was usually won by students from prestigious families already set to attend who were simply looking to add to their list of achievements. To win and be offered a scholarship it was… practically unheard of.

                “Yeah, what about it?” Amethyst huffed.

                “It… it must have been some essay.”

                “Yeah, yeah it was,” Amethyst said calmly before flopping back on the bed. “Sooooooo, are you still a virgin?”

                “WHAT?” Pearl said in the most scandalized tone she could manage. Peridot rolled her eyes.

                “Yeah, she asked me the same thing. Morons. I’m going back to my computer.”

                “Aww, don’t be like that Perry!”

                “PeriDOT!” Peridot yelled before stomping back to her own room. Pearl squeezed her eyes shut and massaged her temples.

                “Look, if we’re going to be sharing a room, we need to set out some ground rules.”

                “Uh-“

                “Firstly, no asking such personal questions! We hardly know each other-“

                “I _know_ , duh, that’s why I’m _asking questions_. Anyway, we’re not-“

                “Secondly, I expect you to keep your half of the room tidy. I do not want to attract bugs-“

                “Hey, I’m not some SLOB! I said I have a system, and bugs are like, tiny roommate friends… anyway, I’m TELLING you I’m not-“

                “Thirdly, I need-“

                “I’M NOT YOUR ROOMMATE! Wow, you talk a lot, geez.”

                “What?” Pearl blinked hard, “O-oh. I just assumed since you… wait, so you just messed up someone else’s bed!”

                “Wouldn’t be the first time, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.”

                “Ugh!” Pearl growled, but honestly she was relieved. So this disagreeable presence at least was not sharing sleeping space with her. Hopefully her actual roommate would be more sensible and-

                “WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY BED?!”

                “EEK!” Pearl shrieked, jumping onto her own bed and cowering as a very, very tall, uh, girl with long flowing hair and dark skin wearing a tank top that showed off armfuls of rippling muscles strode into the room looking absolutely livid.

                “Oh, hey Jasper! Just saying hi to your new roommate, no need to blow a gasket, geez,” Amethyst snorted, casually getting off the bed.

                “ **GET OUT**!” the new girl, Jasper? roared and Amethyst let out a tiny yelp before racing around her and out of the room. A quick door slam indicated she went back to her own room, and a louder slam followed as Jasper slammed the door to their own room as well. Pearl watched with wide eyes as the larger girl huffed and muttered to herself as she straightened the sheets on her bed, smoothing them out before grabbing her suitcase and practically tearing it open, riffling through it and pulling out various trophies and medals that were carefully placed on the table and hung on the wall beside her bed, each one glimmering as though it were freshly polished.

                Pearl decided then that, if Jasper was simply going to unpack then she ought to do the same. She decided that, but she opened her big mouth again anyway. “So, uh, that Amethyst, right?”

                Pearl practically fell off her bed when Jasper’s head snapped up to look at her. She gave her a quick once over before grunting and turning back to her own things. For a moment Pearl thought that was all the answer she was going to get until Jasper’s voice, surprisingly deep broke out again. “Whatever, I’m not going to let some little WEAKLING mess with my stuff or ME! I’m here now, I’m going to keep being who I want to be, and NO ONE can stand in my way!”

                “Um, are you… are you talking to me?” Pearl questioned, and eeped again as Jasper turned to glare at her.

                “Well go on! Ask! I know you want to, might as well get it over with if we’re in the same space and all…” Jasper growled and Pearl wet her lips a little.

                “Um, I mean, so are you…?”

                “Yeah, I’m a transgirl. No, I don’t take T-blockers, no I don’t want to, yeah, I’m still a girl and yeah, I can legally be at the school and NO I’m not going to fucking molest you or watch you when you’re changing or anything else like that. Anything else?” Jasper glared at Pearl as though she could make her melt with her eyes.

                “Oh, that’s fine! I mean, me too!” Pearl said quickly.

                Jasper stared at her, looking more than a little surprised. “You… what?”

                Pearl slapped a hand over her mouth. She… hadn’t meant to… e-even if Jasper was, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t tell anyone… oh, too late now! “W-well I mean, I d-do take testosterone blockers, a-and I have for a long time actually, my parents managed to get them supplied to me and well, I-I mean with my body type I pass well but um…”

                “Oh,” Jasper said as she sat down on her bed and looked at Pearl as though with new eyes. “I guess… you shouldn’t make assumptions.”

                “I know, right? So… d-do you think we can be-“ civil?

                “Friends?” Jasper suggested.

                Pearl gaped.

                Jasper actually smirked a little. “Heh, yeah, I guess we can be friends. Transgirls for life!”

                “Y-yeah, transgirls for life!” Pearl said quickly before yelping again as Jasper crossed the room startlingly fast and pulled her into a hug.

                “I honestly thought I would be the only one! I mean, obviously this means the school put the two transgirls together which is… probably fucking transphobic but… damn, I feel better about this now! Anyway, do you like sports or working out or anything like that?”

                “Um, I… I’ve studied ballet and fencing?”

                “Eh, could be worse I guess,” Jasper shrugged, “So, what the hell is up with those idiots from next door? Well, I guess the computer geek isn’t that bad, but the other one?”

                Pearl grinned, “I know! It’s like, has she heard of personal space?”

                Both girls shared a laugh at Amethyst’s expense, and Pearl started to relax. Maybe she would fit in at Diamond Academy better than she thought.


	2. Thunderstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amethyst didn't want to come to Diamond Academy, but maybe her new roommate will make the stay worthwhile after all.

Amethyst had not wanted to come to Diamond Academy.

                Growing up in the poorer district of her home city with a single mother, she had faced her share of discrimination and the injustices of the world. Living off food stamps and eating things well past their expiration date were all pretty normal to her, and honestly? The idea of having to not only attend school but LIVE WITH a bunch of upper crust kids who didn’t realise how good they had it and how lucky they really were did NOT sound appealing.

                But Amethyst’s mom had always known her daughter was smart, smart enough to get out of poverty if she was given a chance. So she had always pushed her to do her homework and practice her writing, and most of all to think. She always said the world was unfair, so how could it be made better?

                At first Amethyst had fought against her mom’s attempts to make her think, just like to rebelled in the classroom when she deemed them ineffective at their jobs. But slowly she found it sinking in, and yeah, she had started coming up with possible solutions. In her last year of middle school, she had taken her English teacher (one of the few she didn’t hate) had asked the class to write an essay about how they would change the world. Amethyst, for once, felt sort of motivated. She had written an intricate plan for creating a sustainable food re-distribution system.

                Her teacher had not just loved it, she had called her back after class and told her that if she wanted to put ideas like this in motion she needed the best education possible. Amethyst had scoffed, but her teacher had called her mom already, and after pressure from both of them she finally submitted her essay to Diamond Academy’s essay contest. But she only did it to shut them up, and she didn’t expect it to actually WIN or anything.

                But it did win. And the next thing Amethyst knew she was packing her bags and hugging her sobbing mother goodbye at the airport. If her mom was this upset about her leaving, why did she insist so much that she should go? Amethyst huffed, but when she learned she’d be bunking with the other scholarship students she felt a bit better. They were probably, like, uber nerds obviously, but at least they wouldn’t be rich bitches like she was afraid she’d have to deal with the whole time.

                After living in the academy for a couple of weeks, Amethyst actually found herself settling into a kind of nice routine. If nothing else it was nice to have all her meals and housing provided for, and it was good to know that without her at home her mom was probably doing better at feeding herself. And her house-mates were actually pretty okay. Sure, Pearl was kind of uptight and snooty, but she would at least talk to her unlike the rest of the stuck up girls who seemed to act like she had the plague or something. Once in the first week Amethyst had actually gone to check out the library and a group of them actually got up and switched tables when she sat near them! Like, what was THAT about? But after some thought Amethyst decided it was funny and purposely would sit near rich girls around campus and watch them pack up in a huff and move away in disgust. Whatever, was it cause she refused to wear her uniform neatly like they were, and didn’t like to brush her hair? Aw, who cared? It was definitely funny.

                Jasper was pretty cool, if kind of scary. But since she and Pearl had somehow become best friends or whatever she seemed to calm down a lot after the first day and actually liked to talk about sports with her, even though she said pro wrestling wasn’t a REAL sport and that had sparked an argument of the century but Pearl had smoothed it over so that was fine.

                And anyway, not ALL the rich girls were snooty. She had met two in her math class, Sapphire and Ruby. Yeah, they were kind of weird but like, they were also CRAZY smart and liked video games so they were kind of fun to talk to if you could get their attention of each other for like, five minutes. Eh, whatever, they weren’t so bad.

                And then, there was the mystifying Peridot. It was weird that the one girl she’d find the hardest to figure out was her own roommate, but that seemed to be the case. As far as Amethyst could tell, she never went to class. Or if she did, she didn’t share any classes with her and was always in the room when Amethyst checked. She was just on the computer constantly, well into the night even so Amethyst had to build pillow forts just to block out the glare from the screen. Amethyst would of course try to tease her, and caught on quick that she hated being called “Perry” so she called her that as often as possible to get a rise out of her. But for the first solid two weeks, she had yet to have a proper conversation.

                Still 9000th times the charm she supposed. It had been threatening to rain all day and Amethyst didn’t feel like walking over to the cafeteria so had made a sandwich for herself in the kitchen andwas scarfing it while watching Peridot do… whatever it was she was doing.

                Amethyst couldn’t stand the silence! “So, what are you doing on that thing all the time anyway? Watching porn?”

                “What? No!” Peridot snapped, sounding irritated and not bothering to turn and look at her roommate. Rude.

                “Aw come on, you can tell me _roomie._ Like, Pearl and Jasper are already best buds, we should be friends too, right? You’ve barely told me anything about yourself! I like, told you my life story the second night.” As she spoke, she started to hear the patter of rain against the windows. Sounded like the storm was starting up and she thought she heard a rumble of thunder in the distance.

                “Which I didn’t ask for, nor did I care. Still don’t. Also, we have nothing in common.” Peridot said in a nearly robotic voice as the keys of the keyboard clacked until her fingers.

                “Tch, how would you know? Like I said, we haven’t actually talked. I think this is probably the longest you’ve actually spoken to me for since like, we first met?”

                It seemed that Peridot had finally been irritated into turning around! Score! Even though she was crossing her arms and tapping a foot… “I know because YOU talked at ME, and I know myself very well, so I know we don’t have any common ground to form a friendship on.”

                “Why’s that?”

                “Urgh!” Peridot threw her hands in the air in frustration, “OBVIOUSLY, our interests are different! You like wrestling, and being annoying, eating weird sandwiches, and asking weird personal questions. Whereas I like computer science, coffee, and updating my blog. You’re obnoxious, loud, and inflict your presence where it’s not wanted. I’m quiet, sophisticated, and keep to myself.”

                As the patter of rain sped up outside and grew heavier, Amethyst couldn’t help but feel kind of insulted. She crossed her legs and huffed. “Well, like, it’s not as though you’re perfect or anything. What are you, some weird loner that just stares at a computer screen all day and thinks she’s better than everyone? Pu-LEEZ, let me guess, you’re ‘not like other girls’ too?”

                “NO! I’m actually NOT!” Peridot snapped, “I don’t care about crushes, or romance, or, or, whatever it is girls talk about…”

                “What? How disconnected are you? That’s not all girls talk about, you just SAID I like wrestling for ONE, and-“

                “I’m just saying, I never really-!” All of a sudden, a huge crack of thunder shook from outside and the power went off. Amethyst was about to make a wisecrack, when she heard a sudden whimper coming from Peridot’s side of the room.

                “Um, are you okay?”

                “I-I… n-no of course not, my computer is off, and I can’t-“

                Another flash of lightning followed by a thunder crack, and a short scream could be heard as Amethyst squinted through the dark room at Peridot who seemed to be huddled in her computer chair.

                “Hey…” Amethyst said slowly, hardly believing what she saw, “Are you… are you afraid of thunder?”

                “NO!”

                That denial lasted until the next crack of thunder, which sent the girl scurrying and in a second Amethyst let out a yelp of her own as Peridot nearly tackled into her, clutching her around the middle.

                “OKAY I LIED! YES! YES I AM! Oh my god, I know it’s irrational and stupid but I hear it and it’s like it’s the END OF THE WORLD and I can’t even access the internet to distract myself and- and-“

                “Woah, hey, Perry, it’s okay,” Amethyst said in surprise, hesitantly patting her roommate’s head.

                “It’s-“ Peridot sniffed, “Peridot. Idiot.”

                “Yeah, whatever,” Amethyst snorted, before continuing in a slightly more gentle tone, “Um, so if you need to use me as a security blanket, can we at least get a little more comfortable?”

                There was some awkward rustling of bedsheets as Amethyst propped her pillow against the headboard to lean against while Peridot sat moodily beside her, clenching her arm in anticipation whenever lightning lit up the room and letting out soft cries when the thunder inevitably came after.

                But the storm hadn’t let up much in half an hour, and it had already been starting to get late. Since Peridot’s typing had kept Amethyst up the night before, she was getting kind of tired. Which meant she needed to know something.

                “So are you sleeping with me tonight or what?”

                “Why would I- are you sleeping _now_?”

                “Well _yeah_ , kinda.”

                “I- er… well don’t try anything!”

                “Anything like what?”

                “I don’t know, you just… you asked if I was a virgin when I met you! I don’t know what weird things you’re into!”

                Amethyst scoffed, “Dude, I’m not into anything. I’m a virgin too, and plan to stay that way. I’ve got no interest in sex at all.”

                “You… really?” Peridot said in surprise. Amethyst smirked.

                “Uh, yeah? Did you _really_ think you were the only girl on earth who doesn’t care about that stuff?”

                “Well I guess it just… it seems like everyone is…” Peridot said softly, and seemed to relax a bit more. “I mean, well, sex isn’t bad but all the romance and stuff tied up in it usually just seems pointless and weird.”

                Amethyst shrugged. “Eh, romance can be fun. Flirting, going on dates. Kissing can be cool sometimes. But anything else is just… not my thing.”

                “Huh,” Peridot said as she setting down on the pillow next to Amethyst. Amethyst realized the last thunder they heard had been a while ago, now.

                “So… are you a virgin?” Amethyst asked cheekily as it looked like Peridot was starting to drift off.

                “You are so annoying,” Peridot muttered. Amethyst grinned as Peridot closed her eyes. “But… no.”

                Amethyst’s eyes grew round as she practically ripped Peridot up from the covers. The computer genius shrieked as Amethyst got nearly a centimeter from her face.

                “YOOOOOOOO! You already lost your V-card? TELL ME EVERYTHING!!”

                “I-I thought you didn’t care about that stuff!”

                “I DO WHEN IT’S NOT ABOUT ME!!”

                Peridot whined and Amethyst had to laugh as she fought to get away. She had figured out a few things about her roommate today. But mostly… she decided she was pretty damn adorable.

                “You are so cute,” Amethyst giggled. Peridot looked aghast a moment before practically exploding.

                **“I AM NOT CUTE!”**

                Yeah, Peridot was probably the cutest thing Amethyst had ever seen. She was going to be sooooo much fun to annoy. Score again!

                Maybe it had been worth coming to this stupid rich girl school after all.


	3. Pretty Girls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper is too gay to function.

                Jasper had a type. She knew she had a type. Pearl was definitely her type. Delicate, lithe, blushes nicely, and she was a transgirl too which was a plus. And her roommate, which was convenient.

                But she was also her friend, currently her only real friend at the academy, and that sort of complicated things. Jasper had been afraid, of course, of being the only transgirl on campus. It had seemed the most likely situation given her own circumstances. She was actually from a fairly well to do family, and had she been born with a different set of genitals she might well have gone to Diamond Academy amongst the debutants. But no, that simply wasn’t the case. She had done so much to win the approval of her family. She had won more sports trophies and medals than she could count, been offered more scholarships than she could name but… she wanted something different for herself.

                It didn’t matter when she told her family she was fine keeping her birth name, and didn’t plan to take hormone suppressants or replacements as she didn’t want to affect her physical performance. She just wanted to change her pronouns… but apparently that had been too much. Her family had laughed at first thinking it was a joke… until she had gone out on her own and secretly submitted paperwork to get her gender legally changed. Then she applied to Diamond Academy and got the scholarship and… well, it was a good thing she had because her family wasn’t talking to her now. They hadn’t actually disowned her, but they also hadn’t acknowledged what she had done either.

                It didn’t matter. She didn’t need them. She could handle this on her own, just as she did anything. She would power her way through it. God knew if she didn’t she wasn’t sure she could live with herself. She would study kinesiology as she planned, and then… she’d figure it out when it came to that!

                And Pearl… well, Pearl was a lucky sign, she was sure of it! Sure, she was kind of weird, and seemed way too respectful of those who apparently “ranked above them” on campus, but she was also interesting to talk to, and liked to keep the room tidy, and was incredibly cute as she practically danced around the house scrubbing the floors or dusting the furniture. It was nice having her around to sit with at lunch or in class too. Pearl definitely noticed how much Jasper made her stand out, though. Jasper felt bad about that, some days.

                Then something changed during the end of September. Some girls had come over to their small lunch table out in one of the courtyards to ask some thinly veiled questions about Jasper’s right to be at the academy with them, which she had faced multiple times already but never in front of her roommate. Pearl had stood up for her then, and told them she had as much a right to be there as any other girl. Jasper had practically glowed inside, until the girls started ripping into Pearl about her low class background and the questions she had answered wrong in class. It seemed the girls here were willing to rip into them for just about anything. Pearl had been on the verge of tears, and Jasper had been clenching the table hard enough to dent it to stop herself from lunging at the other girls- who knew what the school board would do to her if THAT had happened?

                But then, that other girl had practically floated in from nowhere. She had a massive pink hairdo, and walked like she wore a gown instead of a school uniform. She had smiled gently at all of them.

                “Don’t you all think it’s rather unbecoming of young ladies to treat each other like this?” she had said, in a voice so calm Jasper nearly found it infuriating. Especially when she noticed the look of upmost awe coming over Pearl’s face. That… she had never looked at Jasper that way!

                “ _That’s_ hardly a lady!” one girl scoffed, and the pink-haired girl sighed, and looked… only _just_ on the side of annoyed.

                “ _That_ was a very rude thing to say. If Yellow Diamond from the registration office has allowed her in, then she is a young lady and nothing less.”

                “God, Rose! We were just having a little fun!” another of the girls pouted. The girl, Rose, shook her head sadly.

                “I think it would be better if you left them alone.”

                “What do you know anyway?” the third girl growled, “FATTY!”

                Pearl looked like she was about to lose her mind at such words being flung at what Jasper supposed might be her savior… oh, why couldn’t Jasper think of anything to say? She felt frozen as she watched Rose’s look darken considerably.

                “That… is beyond rude,” Rose said in a voice that… shook ever so slightly near the end.

                “I’ll say!” Pearl chirped in without being asked, “Rose Quartz is practically royalty! How dare you say such a thing to her?!”

                But Rose wasn’t listening to Pearl, she was walking slowly toward the other three girls who were… suddenly backing away and looking a little freaked out.

                “Anything you would like to say to me?” Rose asked, her voice dropping an octave as the third girl swallowed before a scowl crossed her face.

                “I don’t converse with _whales_.”

                And that was all she said before Jasper’s and Pearl’s jaws dropped and they were treated to what was probably the most well-bred and elegant young lady she had ever seen give one girl a concussion and black eye, and the other two broken wrists as they tried to grab at her after the well-aimed punch. They had run away screaming, and Rose sighed gently, turning to Pearl.

                “Are you alright?” she asked.

                “Y-yes, I- you were so… you’re so elegant!” Pearl gushed, and Jasper winced.

                “You were… alright,” she muttered, and Rose merely smiled at her in response. What the hell? Was she really going to lose Pearl to this girl, just because she was more… refined? Though now that Jasper thought of it, she did suit Pearl’s tastes better than she did… consumed by these thoughts, Jasper barely noticed as Rose bent a little closer to Pearl and whispered something in her ear. She did hear Pearl squawk afterwards though.

                “Wait, how did you know? I mean, I swear I won’t tell anyone! I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t, I would never, I have a scholarship! I-in math!”

                “Pearl, calm down, I’ve seen you in the halls at my parents’ house,” Rose giggled, and Pearl blushed prettily. Jasper felt like her soul was getting sucked out. They… knew each other before? Why hadn’t Pearl said anything?

                “I-I… I’m so sorry Miss Quartz!”

                “Please, you can call me Rose, really! We are classmates now, after all.”

                “W-won’t you get in trouble though? Those girls might tell-“

                “I’ll be fine, let me worry about that. In the meantime, did you have a space open at your lunch table for two more?”

                “Um, two more?”

                “Yes, myself of course and my roommate should be along soon.”

                “Of course you can join us! I-it would be an honour!” Pearl said quickly, then seemed to reconsider just as fast. “Wait! Wait, no, I can’t allow you to be seen with a commoner such as me! I mean-“

                “Please, Pearl, we called the same manor home, don’t we? In a way, I feel like we’ve been friends for a long time,” Rose said with a smile and Pearl blushed herself into silence. Rose took a seat, and they sat in awkward silence for a bit. “So, ah, shouldn’t… shouldn’t we be talking about something?”

                “Like what?” Jasper asked in a grunt.

                “Um, maybe about classes, what classes we don’t like? Isn’t… isn’t that how this works?”

                “How what works?” Jasper raised an eyebrow.

                “Um, eating lunch with friends? I… I admit I don’t usually eat out at the picnic tables, in fact, I usually stay in my room but today I thought maybe I could try something different? And I’ve seen Pearl and yourself around campus together-“

                “And you thought you’d butt in?” Jasper pursed her lips as Pearl scrambled to apologize for her, saying she was still angry and upset about the girls from earlier. Rose insisted it was fine, and Jasper rolled her eyes and looked away, staring across the courtyard in annoyance. It seemed that Pearl wasn’t sent to make her school experience better after all. At least not in the way she had hoped. Damn it, why not? She just… she just…

                And that’s when an angel passed through the doors of one of the buildings. Jasper’s breath caught in her chest as a beautiful girl dressed in navy blue, not the school uniform but a navy blue dress, with gorgeous chestnut coloured skin and almond shaped eyes, complete with black hair that reached just past her ears with the tips dyed blue came strolling out holding a tray of food, and to Jasper’s astonishment and panic marched _directly over to their table._

                “Oh, Lapis!” Rose greeted as she noticed the girl, “Pearl, Jasper, this is my roommate, Lapis Lazuli.”

                Lapis, even her name was gorgeous, gave Jasper and Pearl a quick once-over before setting down her tray carefully on the far side of Rose, glancing in Jasper’s direction occasionally and seeming a bit apprehensive. Jasper felt her stomach twist at that look. Was she… was she afraid of her? Damn it! She didn’t want that, she had to not be intimidating, just this once?

                “Um, hi,” Jasper waved a little. Lapis looked quickly down at her food, pasta, and poked at it with her fork.

                “Hi,” she said, almost too quietly to hear.

                “Oh Lapis!” Rose said in a warm voice, “She’s just a bit shy around strangers, but she’s really very sweet.”

                Lapis shrugged, putting some pasta in her mouth and chewing. Jasper glanced at Pearl and saw she was now staring dreamily at Rose. Well, yeah, lost cause there. But _Lapis_? She was just… perfect. Definitely perfect. If she could just get her to talk with her…

                “So, um, Lapis, how do you… how do you like classes?”

                “They’re fine,” Lapis said softly, shovelling more pasta into her mouth.

                “And um… your… your teachers?”

                Lapis paused to swallow. “… also fine.” She ate more pasta. There was some moments of silence. Jasper felt herself starting to sweat. It… wasn’t… wasn’t this how it was supposed to work? SHE WAS SO CONFUSED!

                Rose seemed to sense the awkward atmosphere and tried smoothing it over. “So, ah, Lapis! How’s that girl you’re dating? What was her name?”

                Lapis immediately perked up when Rose addressed her, and Jasper saw she kept her eyes on the larger girl as she responded. Why? “Dating isn’t the word I’d use, we just hooked up a couple of times? Anyway, I haven’t seen her much since the first two weeks, her name’s Peridot.”

                “Right, that’s it!” Rose smiled.

                Pearl snapped out of her dreamy haze then. “Wait, what? WHAT? You mean, OUR Peridot?”

                “She’s our Peridot now?” Jasper snorted, amused. For a second. Then Lapis’ words sank it. “WAIT YOU’RE DATING PERIDOT?!”

                Lapis suddenly cowered back when Jasper shouted, and she quickly reigned herself in, hunching over to appear smaller as she could see Lapis drawing into herself. “I-I mean…”

                “No I said… we’re not… y-you’re friends with h-her I guess?” Lapis, who had been talking brightly a second ago now was quiet again. Jasper could punch HERSELF in the face, god she was so STUPID, for no REASON!

                “Yeah we… uh, I-I’m sorry for yelling I… damn it…” Jasper felt her tongue tying itself in knots… bail. She had to bail. Right now. “Ijustrememberedathinggottago,Pearlneedstohelpbye”

                Pearl yelped in protest as Jasper grabbed her arm and dragged her from her seat. She practically tossed the small girl over her shoulder as she sprinted out of the courtyard in the direction of the scholarship house, passing many confused girls on the way. Pearl complained and struggled of course but she would have to understand when they got back to the room. And help her! Oh god, Pearl _had_ to help Jasper!

                That girl was everything Jasper could want! She just knew it! Pearl was pretty, and graceful, could probably get any girl she wanted… if anyone could help Jasper it was her!

                Jasper was confident. With the right trainer and dedication, she could do this. Lapis said she and Peridot weren’t dating, so… so she had to have a chance, she just had to be less… less… scary? She could do that!

                …right?


	4. Summer Fling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot and Lapis Lazuli had an unspoken arrangement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had random inspiration, so here's a tiny chapter about Lapis and Peridot.

Peridot met Lapis in the summer before she attended Diamond Academy during her campus orientation. Of course, Peridot had not doubted for a second that she would receive a scholarship there for her work in computer science, she had designed her own desktop tower by the age of 13, and was programming websites for small businesses already to make money on the side. She was skilled, confident, and knew what she wanted out of life, that being to get good grades at a prestigious school and rub that in the face of all the CLODS that had dared to insult her in elementary school! Morons!

                Anyway, she knew that this new school would be different. She had come on her own to the summer orientation day in order to assert herself as independent. However… she had come by an inter-city bus and had been late. By the time she got there, the tours had almost finished. The only other girl in her tour group was thin and wore a blue dress that matched the tips of her hair. She stood next to a tall, imposing man with dark eyes who seemed to keep close watch on his daughter at all times.

                But the tour guide still distracted him long enough for him to lose sight of Lapis, and as their tour guide led him away down the maze-like hallways, Peridot and Lapis- distracted by some of the murals in the hallway they were in- ended up lost together.

                While they wandered the halls trying to find somewhere they would be found (Lapis’ cell phone had died and she couldn’t remember her dad’s number offhand) they had introduced themselves to each other and talked a bit. Peridot had found Lapis funny, smart, and interesting, not at all like the idiots she was used to dealing with back home! She even knew enough about computers to understand Peridot ranting about some of her clients she was web-designing for.

                Or… at least Peridot assumed that’s what she was staring at her for. But then she had been cut off mid-rant by a kiss planted square on her lips, and Peridot had reeled back in shock.

                “W-what are you doing?”

                “Oh, uh, sorry,” Lapis looked properly embarrassed at least, backing away a bit, “You were just cute and I thought maybe you might, um, be into girls…”

                “Well I mean,” Peridot swallowed, glancing down at the small ripple of breasts in Lapis’ shirt before quickly darting to meet her eyes again, “I-I’m not saying I’m… _not_ into girls. I’m just… not usually into anybody. I don’t… have crushes or… any… anything…”

                Lapis suddenly gained a knowing smirk and Peridot began to panic. “Was that… your first kiss?”

                “NO! YES! I DON’T KNOW! I MEAN-!”

                Peridot was cut off by another kiss. She squeaked.

                “D-don’t-“

                “Ssh,” Lapis said softly, pulling away. She took a short intake of breath. “I think I hear my dad… call me?”

                It was moments before her dad arrived and practically swept her away with him. Peridot had felt a little numb all the way home. She… she didn’t think she had a crush on Lapis. But she would admit to being a little… interested in what she might be offering.

                After fretting over Lapis’ phone number for a couple of weeks, she finally sent a text saying hello. That had blossomed into late nights of texting back and forth, and admittedly Peridot felt rather daring and… and a little wrong but also intrigued as their texts got a bit um… saucy? Was that the word? Uh, well, in any case, she was starting to fantasize more and more about those two kisses. And when Lapis asked if she wanted to meet up at school in a secluded area well…

                Yes, Peridot had gone on the second night on campus. And it had been… much better than she could have expected. Until the end.

                The end was kind of awkward. They two sweating and breathless teens had quickly pulled their clothes back on behind the bushes and Lapis had kissed her cheek lightly before a barely muttered goodbye and running off leaving Peridot feeling confused.

                They had met like that a few more times. They didn’t really talk about anything else anymore. It was really… just sex. And even though it was kind of weird at first, Peridot decided after a while she was fine with that. That’s all Lapis seemed to want, and Peridot didn’t want to give more really. Maybe… maybe having some form of friendship out of it could be nice but… honestly things were fine as they were. And... it was kind of nice that Lapis didn't seemed weirded out by her prosthetic left arm and leg too. The kids at her elementary school teased her about them, but Lapis had only asked casually about them once, and she had told her she was born without them, and that had been that. It was nice. Amethyst hadn't been bothered either, Peridot thought now, but she had still kind of bluntly started asking weird questions about them and Peridot had cut her off then.

                Peridot had managed to avoid answering most of Amethyst's inane questions, but when Amethyst had finally got her to admit she wasn’t a virgin and begged for details, it wasn't easy to avoid at the time. But in the end, Peridot only mentioned it was a girl she met in the summer. Her roommate didn’t need to know about her… uh… extracurricular activities after all! Who knows what Amethyst would do if she knew the girl she was meeting went to this school too?

                So, now that Amethyst had made a point of making her come out to go to meals with her, Peridot worked extra hard to avoid eye contact with Lapis the few times they passed her in the halls. And since Amethyst starting asking if every text was from her secret lover, she had stopped checking them as much too.

                And after a while of that, she realized Lapis wasn’t contacting her as much anymore either. Then they just stopped talking altogether. They had officially drifted apart, their unspoken agreement ending as it lived… still unspoken.

                Peridot sighed as she looked at the last message Lapis had sent for a meeting over a week ago. Then she shrugged and deleted it. Oh well. It was interesting enough while it lasted. But she figured that, an amazing girl like her, she’d find another arrangement eventually. Maybe Lapis would have some trouble with it though. Oh well, not her problem.

                She turned back to her computer, not realising she was still stroking a thumb over her phone screen with Lapis’ name still displayed.


	5. Forgiveness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby and Sapphire talk "calmly" about their feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo more character backstories this is fun

Sapphire couldn’t remember when she met Ruby. Their mothers had been close friends at Diamond Academy and into adulthood, and so while they weren’t related by blood each of their mothers was godmother to the other. Sapphire was only 6 months older than Ruby, and they had been best friends since before they could remember. When Sapphire’s mother left on spy missions, she would stay with Ruby’s family. And when Ruby’s parents went on tours of their overseas investment properties, Ruby would stay with Sapphire. They knew each other inside and out.

                So no, Sapphire could not remember when she had met Ruby, but she did remember when she fell in love with her.

                It was one of those long winters in elementary school. The ones when New Years had passed, and still months of fluffy white snow drifts reached ahead of them. Back when you were too young to worry about snow storms and climate change, and only enjoyed the frigid air and powder for what it was.

                Sapphire had always enjoyed the winter most out of any time of the year. Ruby had always enjoyed the summer more. But it seemed when they were together, any time of the year could be made magical. So it was for Ruby that winter. Her parents had gone to the Mediterranean, and she was spending a few weeks with Sapphire skating on the ponds that scattered her parents’ property, and sledding down hills only to come in and warm up with hot chocolate by a fire on the weekends, and attending their private elementary school during the week as usual. It was a cozy time of year, and nothing could possible ruin it.

                Or so they had thought. On the Saturday before Ruby was to return home, they decided to explore a bit further away from the house than usual, in search of a higher hill to slide down. Ruby had run ahead as usual, and Sapphire was breathing hard as she tried to catch up. They found a thicket of trees, and beyond them what seemed like a mountain to their tiny frames. Excited, the two of them staggered up the slope, knocking into each other playfully.

                At the top though, Sapphire hesitated. It was a lot higher than she had thought from the ground.

                “I… I don’t know if we should do this Ruby. Those trees are near the bottom of the hill, if we hit them too fast-“

                “Aw, it’ll be fine Saffy! Your parka is really fluffy, it’s like, um, body armour! Anyway, the snow will cushion us, right? Come on, we got all the way here!”

                Sapphire winced. Ruby was giving her a pleading look, and she found it hard to say no to that. Nibbling her lip, she worried for Ruby’s safety but also knew that even if she refused to go that Ruby would probably go anyway.

                It was a silly conclusion to come to, but… “Well, alright, but I go first. If I make it out alright, you can go next.”

                “Phht, okay!” Ruby had laughed, and Sapphire got on the sled with determination, but also fear. She lowered her head so her long bangs would hide her eyes. “Want a push?”

                “Huh? Oh, I-“ Sapphire couldn’t finish her answer before her impulsive friend had dug her warm hands into her shoulders and pushed forward. She let out a scream as she hurtled down the mountain. She heard laughter from Ruby, at first. But as her speed picked up, Ruby’s laughs turned to a scream of her own and then… nothing.

                Sapphire came to at the bottom of the slope. She felt something warm and sticky covering the side of her face. Ruby was hovering over her, a look of absolute panic on her face.

                She didn’t remember much of the next two hours, but knew later that Ruby had managed to pull her barely-conscious form onto the sled and pulled her all the way back to the house, where her mother had immediately had her rushed to the hospital and she entered a coma that had lasted 3 days.

                When she woke up, Ruby was the first face she saw. Though it was weird at first, having lost her depth perception, and when she reached out to touch her face she missed the first time. Ruby had sobbed and gasped her hand, begging for forgiveness. Sapphire had insisted there was nothing to forgive, it was her fault for agreeing to do it. The two small girls had held on to each other tightly, and in that moment, Sapphire knew that Ruby was the one person she would always hold on to. Forever.

                The following year, Ruby admitted feeling the same, and the two had shared the awkward first kisses of young love. And after a few months when Ruby admitted to not really feeling like a boy or girl, but something else, Sapphire accepted that, understanding that even if she kept her old pronoun set that didn’t mean she was a girl. That meant everything to Ruby.

                And when Sapphire, only a month after, told Ruby that after spending a lot of time thinking it over she didn’t feel like she had a gender at all, Ruby accepted that just as quickly. She had a bit of trouble with Sapphire’s new pronoun set, but through hard work (and many frantic apologies) she got it down eventually. And as long as Ruby got it right, Sapphire could get through all those who used the wrong ones.

                Then they discovered video games, and their parents wished they would go outside again. But as the two climbed competitive ranks in co-operative play games, they spent more time side by side on a couch facing a screen than out enjoying any kind of weather. And by the time they entered Diamond Academy, roommates as they had signed on to be, they mostly continued that trend.

                Ruby was always happiest when she and Sapphire were playing games together. She liked it when Sapphire leaned zir head on Ruby’s shoulder, or when Ruby settled her head in Sapphire’s lap. She liked the closeness, the feeling their minds were one as they blasted through Portal 2 and Mario Double Dash and whatever else they could find. Lately, they had found a new MMO RPG that let players create fusion characters out of two or more regular characters. They were usually hard to use, but as Ruby and Sapphire played so frequently they had nearly mastered the mechanics and their fusion, which they dubbed “Garnet”, pretty much beat everyone else on the server and was able to go to dungeons no one else dared to. It was pretty awesome.

                And if Ruby felt safer with Sapphire having adventures on a screen instead of real life where someone could get very hurt indeed. If every time she looked at Sapphire’s single eye and the patch covering the hole beside it and still felt a stab of guilt, she never said anything about it.

                But when Sapphire gently stroked her face and laid a gentle kiss on her forehead, she knew Sapphire knew. And forgave her for it. And that meant everything.

                “I’ll love you forever, you know that, right?” Ruby said softly as Garnet ran through a town on the screen in front of them.

                Sapphire smiled playfully back at her partner. “I know, and you know I feel the same, correct?”

                “Yeah.”

                “And you need to stop blaming yourself about my eye.”

                “EEEH?!” Ruby shouted and Garnet tripped onscreen. “I THOUGHT WE WERENT TALKING ABOUT THAT!”

                “Well, maybe we should. Your feelings are obviously too strong about it, Garnet has fallen over.”

                “ONLY BECAUSE YOU BROUGHT IT UP! And, and WHAT, you aren’t mad at ALL? Really?”

                “Ruby. It was years ago.”

                “BUT I WAS MY FAULT!”

                “Oh boy.”

                Yes, Ruby and Sapphire loved each other unquestionably. But when they fought, you could hear it across the whole floor of the dormitories.

                “WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS? YOU BRING THIS OUT OF NOWHERE, I’M NOT READY TO DEAL WITH IT!”

                “Ruby, if you don’t calm down someone will call campus security again. It really isn’t your fault, and even if it was we were children.”

                “WE’RE ONLY FIFTEEN! WE’RE STILL CHILDREN!”

                “Well, some of us are.”

                “ARE YOU CALLING ME A CHILD?!”

                “You literally just called yourself a child five seconds ago.”

                “WHY ARE YOU SO CALM?!”

                “Because I know you’re burn yourself out eventually.”

                “I AM THE ETERNAL FLAME, BABY!” And with that, Ruby threw a pillow across the room, hitting a lamp which knocked to the floor and shattered. “Uhhh….”

                Suddenly and without warning the door of the room burst open and a girl with a black tank top and messy blonde hair came in. Sapphire looked at the door with a blank expression.

                “Hello Amethyst. What brings you here?”

                Amethyst grinned. “I thought that sounded like Ruby! Heh, are you having a fight? I didn’t know you did that! Anyway, I ran into Sandra on my way past and she was like ‘CALL CAMPUS SECURITY!’ and I was like, ‘Uh, why?’ and she’s like, ‘THOSE TWO FREAKS ARE FIGHTING AGAIN!’ and I’m like, freaks fighting? I wanna see this! So I ran in, heard you, came here. Anyway, what’s up?”

                “Oh, Ruby is just being irrational again.”

                “I’M NOT IRRATIONAL! YOU’RE IRRATIONAL! I GOT YOUR EYE TORN OUT, SAFFY!”

                “Uh… say what now?” Amethyst looked confused. “Dude, that was Ruby’s fault? I thought, I don’t know, maybe you were born with it?”

                “No,” Sapphire sighed, “We were kids, there was a sled, I hit a tree, debris tore at my eye socket, that’s about it.”

                “Metal,” Amethyst said with a nod.

                “I ENCOURAGED YOU! I PUSHED YOU DOWN THE HILL!”

                “I was on the sled. I would have gone the same path either way. It was inevitable.”

                “I COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!”

                Sapphire sighed again and looked at Amethyst with a trying expression. “She just won’t forgive herself. I had no desire to stay angry at her forever-“

                Ruby cut zir off suddenly with a triumphantly pointed finger. “I KNEW YOU WERE ANGRY! I KNEW IT!”

                Sapphire clenched zir fists and threw back zir head. “ **YES! FINE! I WAS ANGRY! MAYBE I’M STILL ANGRY SOMETIMES! BUT I WANT TO STILL BE WITH YOU AND I STILL LOVE YOU AND I CARE ABOUT US STILL HAVING FUN TOGETHER MORE THAN HOLDING A GRUDGE OVER SOMETHING I KNOW YOU HATE YOURSELF SO MUCH FOR!** ”

                Ruby and Amethyst stayed at Sapphire with dumbfounded expressions.

                “Woah, I didn’t know Sapphire could yell,” Amethyst said, blinking slowly, “She has some lungs.”

                “Zie,” both Ruby and Sapphire corrected automatically. Amethyst blushed slightly.

                “Right, zie, sorry. Still though.”

                Sapphire suddenly sniffled, and Ruby took on a look of alarm. “AH! I’m sorry! I’m so stupid, I didn’t mean to make you cry!”

                Sapphire wiped at zir eye, looking devastated, “I-I don’t think you’re stupid! I just, I know you punish yourself enough for it every day, I know you feel bad, I don’t want to get mad at you and make you feel even worse. I just… I want you to feel better so we can move on… I want… I want to feel better too…”  
                Ruby wrapped her arms around Sapphire and held zir close. “I’m… I should have… I’m so sorry, I was only thinking about how I felt, I didn’t think about how blaming myself might affect you! I love you too, I want to be with you, I don’t want to mess that up! I spend so much time worrying that I’ve already messed things up that I stop trying to pay attention to now… I promise, I swear, I’ll try my hardest not to blame myself, if you promise you… if you could just… forgive me… properly?”

                Sapphire looked at Ruby for a moment, then realized zie never had, really. Zie had never told her zie forgave her, just insisted it wasn’t her fault. Maybe… maybe Sapphire needed to apologize too.

                “I’m sorry that I… never let you take any responsibility. I forgive you. Of course I forgive you.”

                Ruby’s eyes flooded now, and the two fifteen year olds held onto each other. And then gently met at the lips, and their sniffles turned into more pleasurable sounds…

                “NOPE! AMETHYST OUT! TOO AWKWARD!” Amethyst shouted.

                “Eek! Ruby, you embarrassed me in front of Amethyst!” Sapphire squealed from behind the door. Amethyst flushed and marched down the hall… and straight into campus security.

                “So, you were the one causing the disturbance?!” the tall, muscular, blonde woman asked, looking rather ferocious. Amethyst gulped.

                “Ah, no?”

                “THEN GET OUT! WE ARE ON LOCKDOWN UNTIL THE DISTURBANCE IS FOUND!”

                “Okay! Okay! Geez!” Amethyst said quickly, hurrying from the building.

                By the time campus security reached Sapphire and Ruby’s room the ‘disturbance’ had calmed down. She never discovered who had been making the racket. A lucky break for everyone, really, since who knew what Ruby would have done if anyone had yelled at Sapphire again at that stage. Could have been a good story though. Oh well.


	6. Confused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose Quartz and Lapis Lazuli talk about Rose's long running crush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for transphobia in this chapter. Believe me, Lapis is just ignorant, people can change in time. At any rate, I'm also going to mention that all chapters are not in absolute linear chronology, but in general it's either obvious where in the timeline of this fic it takes place or else it doesn't actually matter.

Rose used to watch her in the hallways. She knew they were the same age, but as she was shuffled from tutor to tutor to be prepped for her entrance exams to the academy, rounding out her education in grace, music, biological sciences, physics and numerous other subjects, she could catch glimpses of the  lithe figure following her mother around, helping to dust and polish. When she grew older, and Rose was beginning to notice that her clothes and name that was whispered by her father did not match what she thought the soft-smiling figure’s gender to be, Rose saw her leave the house each day to go to public school, and return to the servant’s quarters in the afternoon only to return to helping with laundry and other things.

                When her clothes abruptly changed, and so did the name her parents gently called when they instructed her to straighten her posture and quiet her voice, to be proper and perfect and ready to be a servant worthy of being shown off by Rose’s parents, Rose noticed that as well. Her parents did not, she imagined. They took little notice of the children of servants if they caused no trouble, and Pearl never did, never once.

                But Rose had been confused about what young Pearl had been going through. Although her parents regulated nearly every moment of her day and often kept her inside to ‘protect her from the world’, she had managed once to get a moment to speak quickly to Pearl’s father and ask curiously about Pearl. He had explained the changes as best he could, and from that Rose had done some research on her own. In the end, she would make some conclusions about herself, and knew for certain she wanted to speak to Pearl, if only to tell her that she always found her balanced and swift form moving down the hallways to be enchanting. Perfect.

                She had at first assumed that when she took over the family estate then Pearl could be at her side, and she would have that opportunity. But as she prepared to leave for her schooling, excited beyond words to be somewhat beyond her parents’ watch for the first time, Rose felt a little sad she wouldn’t get to watch that pretty servant in the halls anymore.

                When she had seen Pearl out of the corner of her eye on campus, she thought she imagined it at first. But once she caught her eye once, she saw her more and more. In classes… all her classes actually…

                That’s when Rose realised why she was there. It was just convenience really. She was the child of some of the Quartz family’s most trusted servants, and the right age to attend. As conservative as her parents were, Pearl was so perfect, in form, demeanor and everything else, they would be willing to work to override any issues to get her admitted to the academy, essentially, to spy on their daughter to keep her out of trouble.

                Rose waited weeks sadly waiting for Pearl to approach her to befriend her, all pretense for her parents to get more information about her private life. But as time passed, she began to realise Pearl wasn’t going to do that. And then, she got kind of angry.

                “I can’t believe this!” Rose had snapped at her roommate, Lapis from the prestigious Lazuli family, who was flipping through a National Geographic magazine on the bed. “My mother can’t even bend convention enough to let a servant talk to me when she’s my CLASSMATE? She goes through the trouble of sending a spy, and is letting her prejudice get in the way of actually doing the job properly?”

                Lapis looked up from her magazine with a raised eyebrow. “Um, are you complaining that your mother is spying on you _inadequately?_ ”

                “Uh, well,” Rose blushed and looked sheepishly at her roommate, “Not to say I couldn’t have done it better… I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. But it’s just frustrating to know how little my parents trust me, how much they control my life… honestly, didn’t they even try to interview _your_ parents about your adequacy as a roommate?”

                “Yes,” Lapis snorted, “Of course my dad is so strict they were bound to assume I’d be a good influence. Though, if they were so worried, why not pay extra to get you a single room? They could afford to…”

                Rose made a face. “Yeah well, they don’t trust me alone either so…”

                Lapis hummed, “Maybe if they hadn’t seen your internet search history that one time…”

                Rose’s blush darkened considerably, “Yes well, how was I supposed to know they even knew what slash fiction was? Or that they would search my laptop at all and find my OKcupid account and… WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS?!”

                Lapis shook her head, “You need to get better at hiding things, that’s all. You get too righteous about what you’re passionate for. You need to bottle that in front of them, and use an incognito tab or proxy honestly it’s not that hard.”

                Rose shook her head. “Too late now… I just…” she looked wistfully out the window into one of the courtyards that held a picnic area, smiling softly to notice Pearl and that larger, muscular girl she hung out with a lot. “I just want to talk to her I guess. She must have it so hard, suddenly having to learn beside all these girls she’s been taught to respect. I want her to feel like… like she’s equal to them. She deserves that.”

                Lapis smirked. “You liiiiiike her.”

                Rose jumped. “I- w-what? I don’t, I mean, I’ve never spoken to her!”

                Lapis shrugged. “Hey, what’s stopping you from going down there right now? Not me.”

                “You- o-oh,” Rose looked from Lapis to Pearl in the courtyard and back again. “Wait, but, you aren’t jealous or-“

                “Rose, I told you. I’m polyamorous too. I like you, I’m not saying we should stop what we’re doing, and I’m not going to stop you pursuing the girl you obviously have been crushing on for years. You know I’ve hooked up with Peridot enough times since we started anything.”

                “But… what if she’s not poly? What if she doesn’t understand or-“

                Lapis sighed, “You know there’s no way to tell unless you try. At least go talk to this girl, you can find out if she even feels that way about you. Just make sure if it looks like you’re going to start something you clearly tell her that you’re polyamorous and what that means, it’s not fair to her if you hide it just to make things work, even if it’s just one time you’re with her.”

                “I know that!” Rose said quickly, “Of course I would tell her if it came to that! But I just… I don’t know if I could just… talk to her… right now… I would have no idea what to say! Even coming here, you know I mostly talk to you, I’ve never just sat down with a group of girls and… well…”

                “Why do you have to be so shy about the weirdest things, Rose…” Lapis groaned, falling back against the pillows and putting the magazine over her face.

                “Oh! I know! Lapis, come with me! If you’re there, I’m sure I can do it!” Rose announced, and Lapis pulled her magazine enough to see the determined look on her roommate’s face. Her lips twitched.

                “Okay, but you have to make the first move alone! Just go down there, and if you make positive contact, text me, and I’ll come down. We need to get you out making friends, just try not to, uh, glamour them, okay? It makes you unapproachable.”

                “What? What do you mean?” Rose looked so confused.

                “Um… just… be yourself? Really, that’s all you need,” Lapis got up and moved to the window to peer out, searching for the girl Rose had pointed out once before. When she saw her though, she flinched back. “Oh… she’s with that weird guy again.”

                Rose looked at Lapis sharply. “She’s a girl as much as I am, and Pearl and you-“

                Lapis squinted, looking down, “I can see Pearl, I do, really. I still don’t completely get how it’s possible but she at least looks like a girl.”

                Rose’s expression darkened minutely. “She is a girl.”

                “Yeah, yeah, I know, but I mean, like, she acts like one, cause she IS, okay, stop giving me that look! But I mean, you know how I feel about men.”

                “They AREN’T men, Lapis!”

                “Yes! You’ve lectured me enough, I know! But that other one, wasn’t his-“

                “ _HER_! I get this sort of talk enough from my parents, Lapis! When I met you I was so glad to find someone like me, and like Pearl, but when you talk this way, I just…” Rose’s fists clenched and Lapis winced. Her sharp tone softened a little.

                “Sorry, sorry, but… _she_ still has hi- _her_ … original name, _she_ doesn’t take hormones, _she_ doesn’t even dress much like a girl.”

                “So what? You told me you like butch girls!”

                “I- R-Rose, I just, I’m-!” Lapis looked about to say something, but swallowed and looked away, clasping her hands together. “I’m sorry. I… I’ll go down if you text me, like I said I would… and… and I won’t say anything about what I just… I get so… I’m sorry,” Lapis shook her head. Rose looked at her curiously for a moment, and a concerned expression washed over her face.

                “Hey,” she took Lapis’ chin and tilted it up, searching her eyes, “You just need time to get used to Jasper. I mean, I haven’t talked to her either yet. But I’m sure she and Pearl have it hard here, I think the more friends they have, the better. So just… give them a chance?”

                “Y-yeah,” Lapis smiled then, and a glint reached her eyes as she leaned up to snatch a kiss from Rose before pushing her away to back to the bed.

                “Alright, here I go!” Rose said with the same sense of determination as earlier as she went for the door. Lapis sat up sharply.

                “ROSE!”

                “What is it?”

                “Put your clothes back on first!”

                “OH!”

                Rose Quartz, Lapis mused as she stretched back on the bed, her skin contrasting nicely with the cream coloured sheets, really does live up to her name. Her whole curvaceous body held a rose-tint as she picked up her clothes and hurried to put them on and get out the door.

                Lapis was really lucky to be roommates with such a graceful, soft roommate who was secretly a huge queer dork. But honestly, that Jasper… she wished she could just avoid hi- _her_. She couldn’t help it, she was nervous, she never really met a transgirl before and she didn’t know how it would be, and Jasper just looked so _scary_ and…

                Aw, she couldn’t let Rose down… she was going to meet them all now. Hopefully it would be okay, like Rose had said…

                Taking a deep breath, Lapis Lazuli slid off the bed and slowly started picking her clothes up, keeping her eye on her phone all the while and promising the trembling part of her heart that it would be okay. She would be safe, she would be okay, even if Jasper had been a boy, there was nothing they could do to her in broad daylight in a courtyard.

                When her phone buzzed, she headed for the door.


	7. Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis Lazuli frets about Jasper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning, transphobic ideas in this chapter. Again, Lapis doesn't understand yet.

Lapis Lazuli had everything she could ever want. Her family came from old money, were incredibly well respected in her community and she was revered almost as a princess by those few girls her father approved to come and see her to make sure she was ‘socialized’, and the even fewer boys that had been trotted out, chaperoned, as… well, suitors. All very handsome from respectable families of course. Certainly with her family connections and beauty of her own, Lapis had no shortage of those.

                She had been brought up to be well practiced with many skills, dance, harp, swimming, and of course literary critique and other things to show her refinement. But she had time in her schedule for fun as well. She had many toys and games growing up, and she had gone on many vacations around the world with her mother when she was young while her father worked. She had seen 23 countries by the time she was ten, all with that equally lovely, sweet and kind woman beside her to teach of all about the different historic monuments they saw and exotic foods they ate. Lapis remembered those times fondly.

                But her mother had died when she had just turned eleven, and that had put a grey filter on such memories. Her manner of death, and what came after, made her rather want to forget anything after that point as well. But through therapy, she had recovered. She didn’t have as many flashbacks as she used to. She didn’t have long periods where she refused to speak anymore. She stopped having angered outbursts for the most part as well. Some things remained. She had nightmares fairly often, and only her medication helped her sleep peacefully enough. She still had patches of memory loss from her eleventh year, trauma-induced the doctors had said.

                And she had developed a fear of strange men. She had always been wary of them, any girl in her position would be. But after her mother’s death, being around them filled her with anxiety and dread. Her heart would beat rapidly, and she would immediately start trying to find an escape route. She had found some ways to deal with it on her own, if she went with someone else, and kept them between her and the man, and she was able to avoid talking to them… she could be around them. But she would rather avoid it. Needless to say, that reason alone would be enough for her to be more than happy to attend an all-girls school.

                Of course, what might have been a by-product of that or perhaps not, either way it did not matter, Lapis was also gay as a rainbow. Very, very much queer. She hid it well of course, and her father was happy to keep her away from men entirely until her education was finished at least, so as soon as Lapis figured out that she was (as a very well read and well-travelled young lady it was hard to not to run across such an idea and she never found it unappealing despite her father’s loud opinions), she had wasted no time deducing which of the girls her father allowed to be friends with her would be most open to… experimenting.

                And experiment she had. She and her companion, Asami, had learned quite a lot about each other and themselves over the course of her 14th year. But Asami had been early-admitted to a technology-focused university in a different country from Diamond Academy, and while both agreed to remain in contact, they also agreed that they would have an open relationship. Which allowed Lapis to play the field while at school.

                When she had met Peridot at school orientation, her ability to read people proved her correct again. Peridot was more than willing to help her continue her… experimenting. And within a week she figured out that even her esteemed roommate Rose Quartz swung both ways.

                Lapis supposed that, given her good looks, she probably had a better chance of persuading other girls to try something with her than others might. But either way, she was so far enjoying her academy experience. Well, until she saw Jasper on campus without warning and… er….

                Lapis knew about transpeople before she met one of course. She knew, and she would insist she had no problem with them. She… could understand why someone born like she was would want to be a boy instead. And well, she supposed if it were a TRUE transwoman then that was alright too. Like Pearl, she never would have guessed Pearl was a transwoman until Rose told her, and it was obvious she was just a girl in the wrong body… that was right, yeah? But Jasper… that couldn’t be right! A _real_ transwoman would hate the way her body was! Isn’t that… isn’t that what a transperson was? Someone who wanted to change their body to match their gender or… or it was something like that.

                But Jasper kept his… _her_ name. Lapis had to remember the pronouns if only to appease Rose… but still! Jasper kept her boy name and didn’t make any effort to appear feminine at all! She just changed her pronouns, and since her country didn’t need doctor’s permission to change gender on documentation she had that changed…

                Well, who was to say this just wasn’t some… pervert who came to prey on girls here? Why was Rose so set on defending her? Was it because she made friends with Pearl?

                That said… yes, Jasper was friends with Pearl. And when Lapis had been at that lunch table and seen them up close, she mentioned being friends with Peridot too… right? Maybe… maybe she was okay… but when she had shouted out of nowhere and run off with Pearl, it had sent Lapis into hysterics. Rose had to hold onto her and bring her back to the room at she shook, choking on her sobs. Rose had massaged her back for an hour before she calmed down enough to talk about what had happened, and Rose promised to talk to Jasper about it. Lapis wanted to tell her not to bother but couldn’t quite bring herself to.

                Over the next week, Lapis found her thoughts kept returning to Jasper over and over. Well, she had triggered a panic attack so that wasn’t entirely surprising. But maybe… maybe she could find out more about her from Peridot. For the first time in several weeks, she sent a text to Peridot and asked to meet her in the usual place. It took a while for a response, but finally she got one.

**Wow, haven’t heard from you in a while. I guess I could grant you an audience. –P**

                Lapis couldn’t help but giggle. She liked that about Peridot. She always asked like she was doing Lapis a favour by showing up. It was kind of refreshing for someone used to having others cater to them. She was feeling better already, maybe she shouldn’t have let Peridot drop off so soon.

                When they met in the setting sun behind the bushes, Lapis had meant to ask about Jasper first. Peridot had other plans.

                “Not to act like I don’t want to be here, but I was asked by the computer science teacher to get to class early tomorrow to discuss possible co-op education opportunities. So I actually… can’t stay that long. Soooo….” With that, Peridot drapped her arms over Lapis’ shoulders and her eyelids lowered as she leaned up for a kiss. Lapis hesitated a moment, and just before she was about to shrug and return the kiss Peridot pulled back in confusion.

                “Uh, are you okay?”

                “W-what do you mean?”

                “I don’t know, you just look… off,” Peridot said carefully. “This… is why you called me… right?”

                “It… well not exactly…” Lapis sighed, “I just… I just…. You’re friends with Jasper, right?”

                Peridot’s eyebrow rose. “You’re interested in Jasper?”

                “Yes!” Lapis paused a second before waving her hands frantically, “N-not like that, I just… want to-“

                “Hey, I don’t judge, if you want I could even put in a word. She was actually asking about you a few days ago, somehow she figured out I knew you… weird. Anyway, should I-?”

                “No! I mean, I just, I want to know ABOUT her, that’s it!”

                “Know what?” Peridot blinked, “I… thought you knew what a transwoman was?”

                “I know _THAT_! Just… I want to know is she… nice?” Lapis finished lamely, having no idea what else to say. Her shoulders slumped.

                “Oh, uh,” Peridot cocked her head to one side, “I guess so? Like, she has some anger issues, but when Pearl became her friend she seemed to get better at handling them. She only splintered the coffee table like, one time.”

                Lapis twitched. “I… I see.”

                “So… was that really all you called me for?” Peridot asked curiously, tracing a finger up Lapis’ arm.

                Lapis felt her lips tugging upward again. “Hum… maybe not ALL…”

                They fell into each other, and Lapis put her thoughts to rest for a bit. But when she was back in her own bed listening to Rose’s quiet breathing across the room, Lapis found herself thinking about Jasper… again. She needed to get off of this! Letting out a frustrated growl, Lapis got up to take her sleeping pills. It was going to be a rough night otherwise, she just knew it.

                Back in the scholarship house, Peridot hesitated as she passed Jasper watching TV in the living room. Then she smiled. It’s not like she minded Lapis being with other people, and it looked like Jasper needed to get some anyway. She would be doing both those idiots a favor!

                “Hey Jasper, have I got something to tell _YOU_!”

                Jasper looked up with a raised eyebrow and Peridot grinned. Why was she so awesome? Must be built for it, she guessed.


	8. Annoying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bathroom wars escalate

There was one bathroom at the Scholarship House. One bathroom for four girls. Most years this would lead to four girls in intense arguments every morning, but the dynamic this particular year was less extreme.

                Pearl was one to rise before the sun, a servant habit as the morning cleaning in the frequently used living spaces had to be done before the Quartz family arose, and breakfast needed to be prepared and so on. So she was always quick into the bathroom to clean herself and make sure she and her uniform were spotless before adjourning to the living room for extra study time until she had to leave for class.

                Jasper rose not long after Pearl, but tended to work out for an hour on the lawn just behind the house before using the shower so her routine did not interfere with Pearl’s. She usually got into the bathroom just as the other two’s alarm clock went off, and she would smirk at their loud groans and Peridot insisting that Amethyst ‘turn that satanic thing off’.

                Peridot and Amethyst were both late risers. Peridot because she tended to stay up late on her computer, and Amethyst because she liked to sleep and would probably stay in bed all day if she could. She certainly did that on the weekend. Monday to Friday though, both having put it off as long as possible, there tended to be a rush for the bathroom approximately 5 minutes before they would have to leave for class. Both of them showered at night, a pre-requisite if one liked to sleep in, but this still meant that the last one there had to choose between being late to class, or showing up looking like they had just rolled out of bed with bad breath to boot.

                Usually that wasn’t even a big issue, since Peridot tended to be faster than Amethyst (something she felt rather proud of, given that she needed a moment to fit her prosthetic arm and leg on each morning before the dash), and Amethyst usually didn’t actually care if she looked like a slob.

                But every so often, Peridot would be just a bit too tired to accurately get her limbs on the first time, and Amethyst would get ahead of her and slam the bathroom door in her roommate’s face, cackling wildly the whole time. Peridot would then fly into a rage and start hammering on the door.

                “HEY! LET ME IN, CLOD! I KNOW YOU DON’T ACTUALLY CARE IF YOUR TEETH ARE BRUSHED OR WHATEVER!”

                “MAYBE I NEED TO PISS, EVER THINK OF THAT?”

                Peridot paused. “Do you need to piss?”

                “No. I just like making you mad.”

                “WHAT?!”

                “Hey look, Jasper left a muscle mag in here! Let’s see… ooh, pro wrestling spread.”

                “STOP IT AMETHYST! LET ME IN! WE CAN BRUSH TEETH AT THE SAME TIME YOU KNOW!”

                “Oh really? Then why do you never let me in when you get here first?”

                “I LIKE PRIVACY, OKAY?!”

                “Yeah, well, maybe I don’t like going to class with bad breath every morning!”

                “ARE YOU EVEN BRUSHING YOUR TEETH?”

                “No.”

                “ARGH! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!”

                Muffled laughter came from behind the door, and suddenly there was a click and it opened slightly. Peridot moodily pushed it open and refused to look at Amethyst as she reached for her toothbrush… which wasn’t in its spot. Hearing more muffled laughter, Peridot slowly turned her head.

                Her toothbrush was in Amethyst’s mouth.

                “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING WITH MY TOOTHBRUSH, CLOD?!”

                Popping the toothbrush out of her mouth, Amethyst held it out to Peridot with a smirk. “Want it back?”

                “I, urgh,” Peridot shuddered, but took the toothbrush in two fingers and turned the tap as hot as it would go to disinfect it. “Stupid… can’t believe this… Why would you do that, moron?”

                “Hmm, I don’t know, maybe it’s because you keep calling me clod, idiot and moron,” Amethyst said with an irritated voice all of a sudden. Peridot paused, then shoved her clean brush in her mouth.

                “So what?” she muttered around the bristles.

                “So I have a name, duh,” Amethyst muttered.

                “And?”

                Amethyst slapped a hand over her face. “Whatever,” Amethyst waved, looking rather put out as she was about to leave… then smirked over her shoulder, “See you later… cutie-pie.”

                Peridot sucked in breath too fast and nearly swallowed her toothbrush. Tears sprung to her eyes from choking as Amethyst ran out the door, laughing her ass off as Peridot’s enraged scream followed her.

                That day, unknowingly, Amethyst had sparked a war. She got through her first classes fine, but when she came back to the room after lunch it was Amethyst’s scream that rang through the house.

                “What? What happened? Who did- how did-? WHO THE HELL CLEANED MY ROOM?! MY SYSTEM!” Amethyst ran around, flipping up her covers and checking under the bed, ripping out neatly organized boxes and upending them. “WHERE’S MY ENGLISH TEXTBOOK?!”

                Cackling came from the hall, and Amethyst raised her head and slowly turned it to the doorway where Peridot stood with folded arms and a triumphant expression.

                “What’s wrong Amethyst? Does not living in a pig sty irritate you? Wait- WAIT STOP!” Peridot wailed and tried to run, but Amethyst tackled her to the floor and LICKED THE BACK OF HER NECK! “EEEEWWWWW WHAT THE HELL, AMETHYST?!”

                “Hey, you said my name!” Amethyst said in surprise. That surprise was just enough to let Peridot turn and bite Amethyst’s arm. “OW! HEY!”

                The two chased each other around the room and then into the living room, knocking over the coffee table and sofa, though both carefully avoided the TV in their rampage. Much more saliva, teeth and tackling later, Peridot was pinned to the ground again, with Amethyst threatening to let a huge glob of mucus-filled spit fall right into her face.

                “NO! NO! RECONSIDER! I DIDN’T MEAN IT! STOP IT!” Peridot screamed, but her struggles were in vain.

                “THEN WHERE’RE MY ENGLISH TEXTBOOK, PERIDOT?”

                “It- what? It’s on your bookshelf! Duh!”

                “HA! Nice try Peridot, but I don’t HAVE a bookshelf!”

                “Yes you DO, you had it turned on its side and had a bunch of weird random long objects in it…”

                Amethyst gasped, “YOU MESSED WITH MY LONG-STUFF-STORAGE-UNIT?! Oh that’s it! You’re getting the spit!”

                “NO!” Peridot yelled, managing to get her prosthetic arm free and whacked at Amethyst’s wrist. She almost got free, but Amethyst grabbed her again, this time face down and her head was crushed down on Peridot’s butt as she held her legs trapped beneath her. “LET GO! What the hell is a long object storage unit anyway? Aren’t you here on an English scholarship? I know you read, why not use your bookshelf as, you know, a bookshelf?”

                “Because I like books under my bed, and I need a spot of long stuff, duh!”

                “Tch,” Peridot struggled a bit more, then sighed. “We’re… we’re late to class aren’t we?”

                “Aw, man!” Amethyst groaned, sat up, and rubbed her head. “Whatever. Good fight I guess.”

                “Good fight… GOOD FIGHT?!” Peridot looked scandalized, “You nearly killed me- well, made me disgusting- over the fact I cleaned your room for you!”

                “I don’t let anyone touch my stuff! Not my mom, not anyone! I need things left the way I leave it, or I can’t concentrate, I just think about how irritatingly, urgh, NORMAL and PERFECT it all is, it’s not me at ALL! Why would YOU just try to clean my stuff out of nowhere?”

                Suddenly, Peridot looked away and Amethyst raised an eyebrow as her roommate murmured something. “For the love of- I can’t HEAR you!”

                “I SAID,” Peridot snapped, “I was trying to apologize! You were right, I should let you in to brush your teeth in the mornings with me and… and I should call you by your name! Which I did!”

                “I… I thought you just did that to distract me.”

                “Well I didn’t! … okay maybe I kind of did but… I would have either way! Anyway, I didn’t know it would make you so upset!” Peridot growled. Amethyst’s mouth opened and shut a couple times before she found her voice.

                “I uh… sorry… I guess… just don’t, you know, again.”

                “Oh don’t worry, I won’t.”

                “And uh, I shouldn’t have, I mean… I’m sorry for just… attacking… without asking…”

                “It’s…. fine. Thank you. For apologizing.”

                “Yeah, uh, same.”

                The two girls looked at each other awkwardly and then looked away.

                “Well… better get that book and get to class! Later!” Amethyst giggled slightly before racing into the bedroom and out again, hurrying out the door. Peridot sighed, waiting a minute, then followed suit.

                It might be weird to rant to her… friend with benefits… about this, but if Peridot is honest she didn’t really have anyone else to rant to… she had tried to bridge something between her and Amethyst and that had failed. So much for making peace… why was this so hard? She checked her phone on the way out the door, but Lapis hadn’t called on her today. She hummed before sending a text of her own.

                **You need to hear what my roommate did! Text me back ASAP – P**

                A couple of minutes later, when she was almost at her classroom door, she got a reply.

                **About to go to class. Why the hell did you tell Jasper I like her? I wasn’t talking to you for a reason! –L**

                Peridot felt like her blood had turned icy, and a sick feeling entered her gut as she stumbled into the classroom and got snapped at for being late and a detention…

                It really wasn’t Peridot’s day at all, was it?


	9. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl and Rose have a date at the beach

                Pearl could not believe the events of the last several weeks. She had found herself excelling in her classes now that she had teachers she could ask for help studying. Not that she expected to do much with her schooling other than become a better servant to the Quartz family, but she was finding that she had some interest in her science classes, and was considering enrolling in the optional robotics class next year if she kept her grades up enough to continue attending. She had found a good friend in Jasper who made sure she never felt alone as she wandered the school, and admittedly her friend’s considerable size and fortitude did make her feel much safer. Jasper had even begun to teach her some basic self defense, which couldn’t go amiss. Amethyst and Peridot, while both… rather odd in their own ways, still offered their own attempts at friendship and the four of them had spent a few nice movie nights in the living room together on the weekends (though admittedly choosing a movie the four could agree upon was something of a chore).

                But far more magical and exciting than all of that was that Rose Quartz, the girl of Pearl’s fantasies, the one person she never thought she could be close enough to touch, had approached her! Spoke to her like… like an… equal. Pearl would blush and swoon just thinking about it! Oh, Rose… truly, she was a beacon of humility and modesty! Pearl knew, deep down, she should not be allowing Rose to slum with her as she was. She sent her reports to her parents dutifully, telling them she appeared in peak health, was not in any trouble… she had neglected to mention the incident with punching another student as it never seemed to cause Rose any problems later on anyway. Of course she kept up with her studies as well. But Pearl could never tell them how easy it had become to find such information!

                Because after that first encounter in the courtyard that Jasper had ended so abruptly, Rose had begun appearing near her far more often than Pearl could have imagined occurring before coming to the academy. At first it was only when she was with Jasper, but then once or twice when she studied in the library on her own Rose would come and sit quietly next to her. Pearl would sneak peaks over the top of her book at the incredible girl beside her, and once she caught Rose doing the same. Both had blushed and returned to the pages with secret smiles on their faces.

                Perhaps it was only a matter of time, but Pearl was still shock when Rose had caught up to her as she walked between classes, begging for a moment alone to ask her something. She led her to an empty classroom and ushered her inside ahead of her. Once inside, Pearl was surprised to find the usually elegant and collected girl (well, perhaps not but it was how Pearl saw her) fidgeting and shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

                “Um, are you… alright? Rose?” Pearl asked carefully, approaching with a hand raised slightly.

                “Ah, there’s not… this isn’t something I’ve had much experience with but…”

                Pearl felt her heart beat speed up and her hand curled into her chest. Was… was this it? Was Rose going to tell her she had to stay away from her? Did her parents find out? Did they… did they find out and tell Rose to inform her she was to be dismissed from their service and the school?! No… no they wouldn’t have had Rose give her such information. Then what? Pearl felt a twist in her emotions as she wondered if maybe it wasn’t so bad? Maybe Rose was going to ask her to be her handmaiden! Well, that was a bit old fashioned… maybe just her personal servant would be the right term. Oh that… that would be more than Pearl could ask for!

                “Would you… care to go into town with me this Saturday and see a movie? We… we could get dinner out as well if you want, I think… that’s how…” Rose trailed off suddenly, looking very unsure of herself.

                Pearl blinked. Oh, of course Rose would be embarrassed! “You need an escort! Of course, I would be honoured to accompany you! I, I know I don’t look like much, but I’ve been learning self defense!” Pearl hurriedly demonstrated a couple of moves. “HA! Hayoooooo…” Pearl punched the air, and Rose giggled.

                “Yes, I’m sure you could be a great asset in that respect, but that’s not exactly what I was asking.”

                “It… it’s not?” Pearl said, feeling a bit lost. “Then… what?”

                “I mean, you know…” Rose said quietly, moving toward Pearl and running a hand through her hair. Pearl felt like she might faint as Rose moved in next to her ear. “As a date?”

                And then Pearl really did faint. Luckily Rose caught her. When she awoke moments later, Rose was hovering over her.

                “I… would be honoured…” Pearl said softly, in a daze and without thinking. Rose had looked delighted, and hugged her tightly causing her to squawk a bit before Rose let go with a huge, infectious grin.

                “That’s wonderful! I’ll let you know when I have a time we can meet, okay?”

                “O-okay!” Pearl said, still in a daze as she followed Rose out the door and wandered to her next class. She managed to stay in a dopey stupor until she got back to her dorm that night (much to Jasper’s confusion as Pearl kept not hearing when she spoke to her, which was unfortunate because Jasper REALLY needed to talk to a friend at that time).

                When she got back to the dorm however, she fell into panic.

                “OH MY GOSH I CAN’T GO ON A DATE WITH MY FUTURE MISTRESS!” Pearl squawked, running around the living room and pulling at her hair.

                Amethyst, sitting on the couch watching a reality show, looked at Jasper with a raised eyebrow. “Uh, what’s going on?”

                Jasper frowned a bit, looking at Pearl with concern. “I… I think Rose might have asked her out? But she was just sighing dreamily a little while ago…”

                “THIS IS COMPLETELY UNORTHADOX! Me, a servant! Her parents would NEVER approve! And if they found out? I… I’d be kicked out of the school, I’d lose my job, my PARENTS could lose their jobs!” Pearl wrung her hands together and draped herself over the couch, just avoiding Amethyst’s lap. “Oh, how could she even fall in love with one so far below her station? Terribly romantic, oh I always thought she’d be romantic, but this is too much! Our love is doomed to failure!”

                Amethyst patted Pearl’s foot awkwardly. “Uh… there there? Hey, it might work out?”

                “And if it doesn’t, you’ll get into school somewhere else, find a job-“

                “AND DISGRACE MY FAMILY? The Perle family has-“

                “Served the Quartz family for generations, I know,” Jasper sighed and then growled, “At least the girl you like likes you back. That’s something.”

                “Ooh, Lapis turned you down after all that?” Amethyst said with a wince. Jasper flinched and blushed, looking away quickly.

                “Yeah… damn it! Where’s Peridot? She gave me bad information! I only believed her in the FIRST place because I couldn’t figure out what she’d gain from lying, but maybe she just was looking for trouble. Well I’ll GIVE HER TROUBLE!” Jasper crushed her fist into her palm and both Pearl and Amethyst paled as they looked at her.

                “I… I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s going on but…” Pearl swallowed, “Peridot probably didn’t mean it?”

                “Yeah, I’m pretty sure Peridot really thought Lapis liked you. She was going on about how good a matchmaker she was for a while,” Amethyst frowned, “Still though… I mean, how bad did she turn you down?”

                Jasper rubbed her forehead and walked over to sink down on the couch between Amethyst and Pearl who had curled up her feet to make room. “Well, Rose already told me not to yell in front of her because it triggers her PTSD, but I… forget myself a lot, you know that! And I was nervous, and when I saw her I yelled her name and she jumped, and I realized… and I stammered as she got worked up and…” Jasper shoved her face into her hands, “And I just screamed at her that Peridot said she liked me so we should date… she just…”

                “Yeah?” Amethyst said quietly.

                “She just shook her head quickly with this… _horrified_ look on her face and ran away. I’m just… I’m so STUPID!” Jasper moaned, “Maybe she DID like me, but she sure as hell doesn’t now!”

                Pearl hummed thoughtfully, her own romantic pangs forgotten for the moment, “Maybe it’s not too late? If you tell Peridot what happened, they’re close right? She might be able to smooth things over?”

                “I’m doomed. I’m just doomed,” Jasper groaned, leaning back to stare at the ceiling.

                Pearl’s face clouded over as well. “Oh, me too. I… I’ll have to call off the date. There’s no way this can work…”

                Amethyst looked between the two of them before slapping her own hand over her eyes and shaking her head. Why did she have to be the one to help here?

                “Okay, no. Pearl, you are going on a date with Rose. Don’t lose a shot at happiness. No one is going to tell her parents except YOU, because YOU are the one they hired to report back to them about Rose in the first place,” Amethyst said in exasperation. She was glad they had gotten Pearl to spill the beans on her employment after the first week of her pretending to be a math genius. It was kind of pitiful to watch, really.

                “Er, yes, I suppose that’s right…” Pearl looked thoughtful again at least.

                “And YOU,” Amethyst turned to Jasper, “You need to chill. In general. You either need to accept that Lapis doesn’t like you and move on, or if you’re determined to win her over you need to realise that shouting is a no no, you know? You need to get a grip on your own issues, because obviously they aren’t meshing well with hers.”

                “I know! I know!” Jasper threw her hands up in the hair, “Easy for you to say, I just… have volume issues when I’m stressed out… and Lapis just… GAH!”

                “Uh huh,” Amethyst snorted, and glanced at the tv for a moment longer before standing up and stretching, “Look, I’m not really the ‘advice giving type’, so I’m bowing out here. Figure things out. I’m going to my room. Later!”

                With that, Amethyst went to her room, and Jasper and Pearl were left to mull over things on their own.

                In the end, Pearl decided to go on that date with Rose. She was instructed to meet Rose in front of doors of the main school building at noon on Saturday, and, as someone perpetually early to things, Pearl was shocked to see Rose waiting for her already at eleven forty. At first she was terrified she had gotten the time wrong, but Rose assured her that she had just been over eager and showed up a half hour early.

                Pearl had been shocked and flattered immensely that Rose had been so eager to meet up with her, of course Pearl would have a hard time fully accepting that Rose might truly like her this way even after being asked on a date. But the two had left the grounds as planned and gone into town.

                Diamond Academy was situated about a mile inland of a coastal town known simply as Beach City. As prestigious as Diamond Academy was, Beach City wasn’t anything that special. Yes, it had richer districts of course, but the downtown and boardwalk areas had their mix of people of differing economic backgrounds. Many of the girls from the academy never went into town either due to their own prejudice or their parents forbidding such a thing. Rose was one of those forbidden… not that she had told Pearl, and she trusted Pearl not to mention this to her parents either given it would imply how close she had gotten to Rose to say they went to town together.

                At any rate, Beach City, while nothing spectacular, had a movie theatre and its share of restaurants and night clubs. While apparently it was busiest in the summer during tourist season, in the months of the school year the selection of Diamond Academy girls that did walk its streets helped to keep businesses that would normally only be seasonal open year-round, even as the leaves were changing and a frosty wind had begun to blow the sand on the shore up and around in tiny dust-devils.

                The two girls had managed to strike up simple conversations about classes as they walked the mile into town. They might have called a cab, but Rose insisted on walking as more chance to get to know the girl she had watched from the corner of her eye so very long.

                When they reached the city, they spent some time simply exploring different shops. In an antique store, Pearl got excited and pulled Rose over to a dresser by the wall.

                “This dresser, I recognise this wood design! It’s completely symmetrical, and the furnishing looks like it was made by the same wood worker who fashioned the vanity in your mother’s dressing room! I must have polished that one hundred times, it’s strange that a piece from such a fantastic carver would end up here of all places,” Pearl said excitedly, running her hands over the top of the thing while Rose looked on in astonishment.

                “You can really tell that, just by looking at it? I never would have known. But I suppose I never looked too hard at mother’s vanity…” Rose smiled at Pearl, “It must have been annoying, having to polish it so much!”

                “No, I like cleaning,” Pearl said, waving away the question as she continued to study the wood, “I always loved that vanity, honestly. If I ever had rule over such an estate, all my furniture would be elaborate as that… I think my father once told me it was one of the presents your maternal grandfather bought for your mother for her wedding day.”

                “I… didn’t know that either,” Rose said, looking awkward now, “Can… can we talk about something else?”

                Pearl straightened abruptly, looking ashamed, “I-I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t be lecturing you on your own family! We can talk about, uh,” Pearl cast about for a topic of conversation, and found herself staring at a slightly off-putting pink porcelain cat sitting on a shelf nearby, “That… cat statue! I mean, it’s so… pink! Like, like your hair! It’s pretty!” Pearl ran over to the shelf and picked it up, cradling it and sweating as she did so, “I mean, it’s… cute!”

                “…cute?” Rose looked surprised by Pearl’s choice of topic, and looked for closely at the cat in question. It was pink, but Rose hoped her hair wasn’t nearly as neon-shaded as that. And one of its too-wide eyes was pointing at an angle slightly off from the other one… even its tail looked like it had a couple of kinks. Still… if Pearl like it then… “I’ll buy it for you!”

                Pearl flushed furiously at that, “I- what? No! No, no, I mean, I don’t like it THAT much-“she made to put it back, but Rose took it from her and started for the cash register.

                “But you liked it… I just… I want to do this right…?” Rose looked so confused and a bit hurt… Pearl nodded numbly as Rose brightened, bought the cat (hiding the probably-too-steep price from her companion) and handed it over as though she had brought a golden apple from the tree of immortality.

                Pearl had to admit upon taking it that it rather felt like she had received as much. As weird as the cat looked… it was a present from Rose now, so it had value like nothing else. So Pearl smiled like a dork, and Rose returned with twice the dorkiness, and the two walked closer together as they continued along the boardwalk looking for a place to eat now. They found a small pizzeria, and this time they began to talk about the problem of Jasper and Lapis as they ate.

                “I think Lapis just can’t get around the thought of Jasper as a man,” Rose said, quickly adding as Pearl opened her mouth, “Even though I know she’s not, and I told her as much, I think it’s worst when she shouts.”

                Pearl nodded, “I agree. I know Jasper is trying to be so loud, but it seems to be her default setting. I’m not really sure how she’s going to get a hold of it. She’s thinking of giving up and honestly that might be for the best at this point.”

                Rose sighed, “It’s a shame though… they would probably be cute together, if given the chance to get to know each other…” Rose brightened suddenly, “Maybe we could try to double date with them?”

                “Ah, well, that might work…” Pearl looked unsure a moment before a realization struck her, “Wait, you want another date, after this one?”

                Rose looked surprised, “I, don’t people usually go on more than one? Unless… you aren’t having fun?”

                “NO I AM! I am! I mean, I just,” Pearl floundered, “Yes! Yes let’s… a date, yes…”

                “Excellent! I’ll ask Lapis about it, and you can ask Jasper,” Rose smiled.

                After that, the topic turned to general likes and dislikes of food and clothes and music, and this continued as the two forgot about plans for movies and headed for the beach. It was too cold to dip their feet in the water, but they did find themselves near an outcropping of rocks. Feeling a bit adventurous, they stumbled over a few, and found a decently-large cave. The walls were scrawled with graffiti from generations passed, but strangely none of it looked that recent. Well, maybe not strangely as tourist season was over and this close to the ocean the wet, salty air would make most paint and ink wear away quickly.

                At any rate, Rose and Pearl walked a short ways in, and realised the echoes and waves made the cave something of a pocket to itself. Like the world outside didn’t exist except from the continuous gentle crashing of the ocean.

                “It’s almost like music,” Pearl said softly, her voice ringing in the space.

                “Yes,” Rose said, then a thought seemed to strike her and she smiled in a way that promised something more, “Would you like to dance with me?”

                “Dance?” Pearl was surprised to see Rose offering a hand to her, but after a moment she took it, and the two were suddenly twirling around the room. Rose held Pearl’s light body easily as they dipped and stretched their arms between them, never quite letting go. Pearl pointed her toes perfectly in pirouettes, and Rose never wavered in balanced and calculated movements that matched Pearl’s perfectly.

                After a while, they breathlessly found Rose had brought Pearl into a hold against her heaving breasts, their mouths inches apart. Rose closed the distance, and Pearl moaned into her first kiss, never having imagined it being as perfect as this.

                Their bodies moved against one of the stone walls, Pearl felt Rose’s hands slip to her waist and lower as her own hands made way to Rose’s chest.

                For a while, the two muddled their way through Pearl’s awkward but mostly magical first time. Rose, most experienced, led the way. Eventually, they shared smiles and giggles in the darkening cave, and disheveled they would make their trek back to the school as they helped each other look more presentable so as not to call too much attention to themselves.

                They managed a kiss goodbye without anyone noticing, and Pearl slipped into the Scholarship House without incident. It seemed that Jasper wasn’t back yet, and Peridot and Amethyst were talking in their own room, leaving Pearl to waltz into the kitchen, humming to herself as she threw together a snack, as she felt somewhat famished after all the excitement. After, she would place her new porcelain cat on her bookshelf, and Jasper would come to think of it as the creepiest thing in the room, particularly as Pearl would coo while she dusted it.

                On the other side of things, Rose had wasted no time, once getting back to her room, relaying every detail of the date to Lapis. Lapis had smiled and nodded throughout, and then casually asked if Rose was coming to bed tonight or not, after all that excitement.

                At that, Rose’s smile died a little, and she looked a bit sheepishly awkward. Lapis blinked, then took on an expression of disbelief.

                “Rose… you DID tell Pearl you were polyamorous right? Before you asked her on a date?”

                “Well I, er, not _before,_ no.”

                “Before you kissed her then?”

                “Um… no…”

                “You waited till AFTER you had sex with her?!”

                “Well… actually…”

                Lapis twitched. “You haven’t told her, have you?”

                Rose flinched. “I… I will!”

                “I GAVE YOU ONE JOB, ROSE!”

                “I’M SORRY!” Rose wailed as Lapis threw pillows at her from across the room. Honestly, Rose was a smart girl… but sometimes Lapis thought she was the dumbest thing on the planet.

                At least she was being an adequate distraction though, Lapis really didn’t want to think about what Peridot had told her that day, and she really didn’t want to think about Jasper anymore. But if no one else mentioned either of them for the next while, she would be fine.

                “Oh!” Rose said suddenly, “I know you probably won’t like the idea, but Pearl and I wondered if maybe you and Jasper would like to try a double date with us! Or, you know, if that’s no good I’m sure she would be alright on a double date with Peridot instead.”

                Lapis could have screamed.


	10. Halloween Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween comes to Diamond Academy, and a competition is in the works

In the second week of October, the video screens in all the morning classes lit to reveal the Headmistress Diamant Jaune sitting at her office desk looking pristine as usual. Her yellow hair was piled on her head, presumably with more hairspray on her head than most people could afford in a month as it looked as hard as a beehive. Her uniform was pressed into the sharpest creases, and her expression was extremely serious.

                The effect of her stern aesthetic was, sadly, rather deterred by the orange and black streamers draped around the ceiling behind her, and a low-hanging black spider hanging near her head.

                “Students of Diamond Academy,” Headmistress Jaune said in a flat voice, “It has been brought to my attention by my secretary Miss Melynas that Halloween is almost here again.” The Headmistress’s eyes slowly panned over to the spider and a low growl came from her throat before she continued, “While I find holidays to be distracting from important time that should be spent on studying to become the most powerful women on the planet… my secretary rather insisted that it would be… fun. In fact, she even decided to decorate my office for me. Even though she knows I despise plastic spiders. Charming.”

                A voice came from off camera, “Uh, actually I didn’t-“

                “Anyway,” Headmistress Jaune spoke over the other voice, her eye twitching in irritation, “In the, er, ‘spirit of the season’,” she used air quotations, “We will be hosting a school wide haunted house. However, this will be an opportunity to further your competitive spirits as well. All students will be required to form groups of four and design one room in the arts building to add to the haunted tour. Points will be awarded for creativity, level of terror inspired in your classmates, and for keeping within your budget. The winning team will receive a special award, and the team with the lowest score will face a special _punishment_.”

                The voice from off camera piped up again, “I don’t think that’s really in the holiday spirit…”

                “YOU are lucky I’m even humouring your strange obsession with this holiday!” the headmistress snapped in the direction of the camera, “Now turn that thing off and take down this spider, it’s ridiculous and… and it’s hanging too low! It’s going to hit me in the face! When did you say you’re going to be showing this to the students anyway? Edit this thing out, it doesn’t even look realistic!” Headmistress Jaune batted at the spider… only for it to start scurrying back up its thread. “AH! IT’S REAL! IT’S REAL! **_DEIMA_**! DEIMA COME KILL IT _RIGHT NOW_!”

                “I tried to tell you!” a woman with blue braids and large glasses came into frame, scooping the spider into a cup and hurrying away with it.

                “Oh my god,” the headmistress put her head down on her desk, “That was too close. Thank god this isn’t a live broadcast.”

                “Uh, about that…” came the voice off screen again before the screen went dark.

                As the teacher loudly cleared her throat, Ruby, Sapphire and Amethyst shared a laugh and started furiously passing notes between the three of them. Obviously, the three of them had to be in a group together. Partially because Sapphire and Ruby would never consider being on different teams, and also because Amethyst was actually the first person they met outside of themselves they decided to consider a friend. Now they just needed a fourth. But Amethyst had a suggestion.

                “So, you’ve come to me to help you in your time of need? Understandable,” Peridot said with a cat-like grin as she wheeled her computer chair around when Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire reached her dorm room after class. “After all, my knowledge of computer technology should be a great asset toward creating a truly horrifying scene for our fellow students. But what’s in it for me?”

                Amethyst looked unimpressed, “How about three teammates that won’t shove you into a close when you get annoying?” Ruby and Sapphire snorted.

                Peridot blushed, and crossed her arms. “Er… fair enough. So, did you have any actual ideas to start with? Like, a theme or something?”

                “An icy wasteland, the chill will remind them of death. We will create a blizzard where they cannot find the door nor escape,” Sapphire said in deadpan. The other three stared at zir for a moment.

                Ruby recovered first, “Well… that sounds interesting… OR, we could make the entire room look like HELL ON EARTH! Turn up the thermostat, add some flames, a demonic screams of the damned soundtrack…”

                Amethyst coughed, raising an eyebrow, “Well, I mean, both of those are… creepy… I mean, I figured we could just go for the classics? Some cobwebs, a couple of decent jump scares, maybe I could disguise myself as a decapitated dummy and then BAM! I’m actually alive and grab their leg! Or, uh, something.”

                Peridot did not look impressed, and sighed, turning to her computer and pulling up some websites for reference. “Well, maybe we can work with jump scares. And messing with the temperature of the room could be a good idea for atmosphere, but I think we’re going to have to go bigger if we want to win this.”  
                “Woah, who needs to win? We just don’t need to lose, it’s not like it’s actually graded or anything,” Amethyst pointed out.

                “What’s the point if we don’t win?” Peridot asked.

                “Exactly!  I want to win!” Ruby said, eyes burning as her fists clenched. Sapphire hummed.

                “It would be nice to win…” zie said. Now the three looked at Amethyst, who made a dismissive noise.

                “Fine, whatever, I guess… I DO kind of want to know what that award is… sure, let’s play to win!” Amethyst grinned, and the group fell into intense planning mode.

                Meanwhile, Jasper had quickly secured Pearl on her team, and Rose Quartz had quickly found Pearl to ask her to join with her as well. And Lapis had asked Rose to be on her team. Clearly without thinking it through.

                Rose and Pearl met up in a spare classroom with their roommates, and immediately ran into each other’s arms, Rose spinning Pearl in the air as they pulled together in a kiss.

                Lapis looked at Jasper and froze still as a statue. Jasper’s face turned bright red as she shuffled from foot to foot, looking anywhere but at Lapis. After a moment, Lapis thawed a bit, but coughed and looked away as well while Pearl and Rose finished their impassioned hello.

                “Uh, are you two done… yet?” Lapis asked after a moment longer. Rose and Pearl flushed and broke apart, grinning awkwardly.

                “Yes well…” Rose giggled, “Any ideas on how we’re going to arrange this? I don’t feel like we need to win, but I would love to do a good job anyway, this should be fun!” Pearl nodded eagerly in agreement, thinking that it would be fun just spending time with Rose!

                “We’re not trying to win? Why not?” Jasper asked, honestly confused. She always played to win!

                “I see nothing wrong with just doing it for fun,” Lapis said, frowning slightly as she glanced at Jasper before striding over to a desk and taking a seat.

                Jasper clenched her fists and teeth, taking a deep breath. Her first instinct was to get angry over how Lapis was obviously snubbing her, but she had to remember what Rose had said. Lapis had some kind of PTSD, which Jasper had triggered not once but twice. Also, she had acted on bad information and probably made her feel like she was going to get jumped or something… this project was Jasper’s chance to prove she could get a hold of herself and not be terrifying! Taking another deep breath for good measure, Jasper sank into a chair a moderate distance from Lapis.

                “I think a fog machine is a good place to start,” Jasper said carefully, “That’s within budget, and with visibility down we can save money on making the other props realistic.

                “That’s a great idea, Jasper!” Pearl smiled brightly, pulling out a notebook and a pencil and writing down the bullet point in neat handwriting. “Alright, anyone else have ideas?”

                “Um,” Lapis cleared her throat a couple of times, “Maybe we could have a swamp theme. Swamps are spooky and well, honestly if we put water on the floor some of these girls are bound to be scared of getting their shoes wet at least.”

                “Okay…” Pearl scribbled that down and looked at Rose, who clapped and smiled.

                “Yes, excellent! We could bring in a few potted plants and some streamers to be like seaweed, and with the mist… we could have some running water, and we could have Lapis dress as a waterlogged corpse, and Jasper and I could be swamp beasts!” Rose looked at Pearl who was scribbling and nodding furiously.

                “All wonderful ideas, Rose!” Pearl said with great feeling, and then paused, “Um, what… what should I be?”

                “Well, what do you want to be?” Jasper asked, not really enjoying the thought of being a swamp beast, but not wanting to say anything since it had been Lapis’ idea and she was on the outs with her as it was.

                Pearl fiddled with the pencil, “I-I don’t know…”

                Lapis hummed, “Maybe you could just run the special effects? The rooms aren’t THAT big in the arts building, having too many actors might be weird, and someone needs to direct and make sure nothing goes wrong.”

                Pearl brightened. “Yes, I can do that!”

                “Good idea, Lapis!” Jasper said quickly. Lapis looked at Jasper for a moment, then looked away. Jasper huffed and bit her lip. “And uh, I can help with make up! I’m… good at costume make up…”

                Lapis blinked and shifted slightly, looking back at Jasper. “That… sounds good.”

                Jasper straightened a little. That… sounded like progress.

                The four continued their discussions, and by the time they parted they had put together what they thought was a rather decent concept.

                Of course, back at the Scholarship House Jasper and Pearl would have to listen to Amethyst and Peridot brag insufferably about how awesome their scare-room was going to be, but that was to be expected. Pearl always found them weirdly competitive.

                “I don’t know why you’re both taking this so seriously!” Pearl said with a sigh, “We’re not graded on it, I’m certain the reward is superfluous…”

                “Like, what’s wrong with wanting to win?” Amethyst huffed, “I mean, I don’t care THAT much, but the others really want to…”

                “Actually,” Jasper interjected suddenly, “I think Peridot and Amethyst’s idea is sort of… better than ours? And well… I kind of… want to win…”

                Pearl looked at Jasper curiously, “Really? Well… maybe…” she sighed, “Well, if Amethyst doesn’t care then, maybe you and she could… switch teams?”

                Jasper perked up a little and thought about it. She was making progress with Lapis… maybe… but she also couldn’t help wanting to win so… maybe she would have… other opportunities… and anyway Lapis was making it pretty clear she wasn’t REALLY interested in her at all…

                “I don’t see a problem with that,” Jasper raised an eyebrow at Amethyst, “It… might be good to make new friends… you don’t care, right?”

                Amethyst knew Jasper didn’t mean to but… she was so intimidating! As much as she wanted to work with Peridot… well anyway, the swamp idea sounded more fun and less work than everything Peridot wanted to do… yeah she didn’t care about winning THAT much…

                “Wait… you’re actually going to switch?” Peridot asked, looking at Amethyst oddly, “But, we’re totally gonna win with my ideas!”

                “Yeah, but I mean, it seems like work,” Amethyst shrugged, “Besides, Jasper wants to win, I don’t actually care that much…”

                Peridot looked Jasper up and down with pursed lips. “I guess she would be useful for scaring with…”

                “Scaring?” Jasper said, narrowing her eyes.

                “Well yeah,” Peridot shrugged as Amethyst cowered at the look, “You look scary, even though I know you’re not. I’m planning to take off my prosthetics since people have some weird instinctual fear of missing body parts. You’re tall and muscular… I don’t know, work with what you’ve got, right?”

                Jasper blinked, “I… can help with costume make up too.”

                “Okay,” Peridot said and the four agreed to the switch, quickly texting their other team members to inform them of the change. Rose and Lapis were fine of course, though Ruby and Sapphire were a little unsure since they had been looking forward to working with Amethyst. Still, Amethyst quickly told them they needed to make new friends and stop being weird loners, so they agreed, making plans to smack Amethyst next time they saw her.

                And with that, plans were underway, and the Diamond Academy Haunted Room competition looked like it would be an astounding success!

                … though with the elaborate plans in the works, Headmistress Jaune might find herself regretting this when she saw the bill the cleanup crew would hand her after it was over…


	11. Halloween Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween antics continue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to only have 2 parts and post the last one on Halloween buuuuuut whatever. There will still be a final part to this on Halloween but here's some more filler crap till then.

                It was one week until Halloween night, and the scare rooms were finally starting to come together. Lapis really started to participate more in the planning process once Jasper left, though Rose wisely chose not to comment about that for the moment and Pearl of course didn’t notice. Lapis had a lot of excellent ideas for how to pull the actual scene together, where to get various props and how to pull off specific effects. Rose was creative, so any time the others weren’t sure how to make the place a better scare experience she was quick to step in with ideas. Pearl was well organized, so she kept track of paperwork and receipts, as well as keeping written record of all the various ideas of Rose and how to pull them off. Amethyst was good with legwork, and so whenever someone had to go into town for something, or when they had to try out different make-up effects, Amethyst was first to volunteer. And she had to admit, they were a good team. In fact, even though she joined this team specifically because they weren’t obsessed with the award, she was starting to think they might actually win this thing after all. And she wouldn’t exactly mind that either.

                Peridot, Ruby, Sapphire and Jasper were having considerably more trouble. Yes, they all wanted to win, but they all had VERY different ideas on how to pull that off.

                “Seriously, what’s scarier than HELL?! Saffy, come on, you know it’s the best idea!”

                “Cold reminds people of the embrace of death and is good at causing psychological distress. Hell is… overdone.”

                “I’LL SHOW YOU OVERDONE!”

                Peridot groaned, “Look, I’m TELLING you both that I can hook up some projectors and rig up a hologram system with this kind of budget! Imagine just having a giant chainsaw wielding ghost COME OUT OF NOWHERE AT YOUR FACE! Jump scares are the scariest thing on the internet, everyone knows that!”

                Jasper growled and slammed a fist down on the lunch table they were arguing around. “I don’t CARE what we do, but we NEED to pick a topic so we can start ordering materials! I’ve been crunching numbers, and I’m TELLING you that I need to order make up materials AT LEAST five days in an advance to get a good enough quality! SO PICK SOMETHING!”

                The three smaller classmates looked at Jasper and then at each other. Then they started squabbling again. Jasper clawed at her eyes in frustration.

                “FINE! OBVIOUSLY you all need leadership to make this work,” Jasper glared at Peridot, “You! Jump scares are fine and can work with the other ideas.” Jasper turned her glare on the other two, “We can’t do both hell and an icy wasteland since we only have one room and one thermostat. The icy wasteland is more original, but harder to pull off. Hell is overdone but will be easy. Neither of those are winning ideas. Ghosts are good, like Peridot said, if we can use holograms. Even if not, we can use mirrors and make up to make similar effects. So let’s use ice and fans to make cold spots, have things fall over… just general haunted room. You can even have a frozen corpse.”

                Sapphire took a breath in and out. “…fine.”

                “Hey, what about MY ideas!” Ruby raged, “My ideas are GREAT, and I don’t appreciate IGNORING them!” There was a pause. “And… I don’t want to stand in a cold room for an hour while everyone goes through it.”

                Jasper rolled her eyes. “Fine, then what if we had the ghost room, and one corner is a… a… gate to hell jump scare? Like… it just sort of… opens and Ruby runs out. It can have a blast of hot air, might be a surprise after all the cold… is that fine?”

                Peridot, Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other. Then they started arguing again. Jasper slammed her head down on the desk and wondered how they were ever going to get through this. She was starting to regret jumping ship… “ALRIGHT! How about we just, order all the materials for all your ideas, and then once we have it we can figure out how to set it up?”

                Peridot folded her arms. “I suppose that’s… acceptable.” The other two nodded as well, and Jasper sighed, quickly writing out a list of required materials.

                “So,” Sapphire said after a moment of silence, “I hear you struck out with Lapis.”

                The tip of Jasper’s pencil snapped as her eyes slowly moved up to meet Sapphire’s. “… why are you bringing that up?”

                Ruby rolled her eyes. “That’s what Sapphire does. Brings up things that are bothering you because zie thinks you need to ‘deal with it’.” Sapphire hummed in agreement. Jasper growled.

                “I don’t need to deal with anything!” Jasper snapped, “Yes, I tried to ask out Lapis. Yes, she… said no. That’s it! I’m not going to hold it against her for saying no or anything, if she doesn’t want to date me then it… it’s fine!” Jasper’s gaze shifted to Peridot, who paled, “Although I AM wondering why Peridot LIED to me about her liking me.”

                “Hey, I honestly thought she did! She was asking about you, and I know she said she likes butch girls at one point, and like I said, she’s poly, so the fact she’s hooking up with me shouldn’t be in your way or anything!” Peridot huffed, “I don’t know why she didn’t want to go out with you! Maybe… maybe she’s aromantic too? Maybe she’d be down to hook up but not date?”

                “You think so?” Jasper asked, raising an eyebrow.

                “Actually,” Sapphire said suddenly, drawing attention back to zir, “I mentioned it because I have some advice. I have known Lapis for a long time after all.”

                “What? I didn’t know that!” Peridot piped up, suddenly interested, “I wouldn’t mind tips to be honest…”

                “Oh yeah,” Ruby piped in, “I forgot, you used to visit with her when your mom was working in the middle east and my parents were on vacation with me, her dad actually approved of you…”

                “Exactly,” Sapphire smiled vacantly, “And so, I thought I might be of assistance, if you’re still interested in winning her over.”

                Jasper looked at Sapphire and harshly chewed her bottom lip for a few moments. Then she muttered, “What did you have in mind?”

                Sapphire hummed. “Well, to start with the base fact, you’ll get nowhere if you raise your voice around her. Honestly, growing up? She was NEVER yelled at, except once. She was the definition of sheltered, well behaved girl until she was eleven and… well, it’s not my place to tell the story, but the point is that what she went through left her with PTSD to the extreme. If you yell around her, you drive her away.”

                “I KNOW THAT!” Jasper shouted… then realised what she had done and slammed her face into her palm. “I-I know… that. Sorry. Go on.”

                “Yes…” Sapphire smirked, “Anyway, aside from that, Lapis IS polyamorous, so you need to be sure you’re okay with that. If she does date you, it won’t be exclusive.”

                “That’s fine,” Jasper nodded quickly, “I mean, as far as I’m concerned, I’ll be lucky to date her at all so… and anyway, I mean, trying polyamory could be interesting, I guess.”

                “Hmm,” Sapphire looked at Ruby, who shrugged. Zie shrugged in returned and went on. “Anyway, if you’re good with those things, Lapis likes intelligent conversation, but she can also be kind of gossipy, so if you have any dirt on anyway it’s a good way to start a conversation. Also she likes to give advice, so the best way to make her like you is to ask her for help with something.”

                “I… I can do that!” Jasper said quickly, surprised. That was good information! “Do you have anything else?”

                “I can make notes if you want?” Sapphire suggested, and Peridot, who was taking notes of her own, nodded furiously to that. Which basically led to yet another planning session getting completely derailed as Sapphire dished out dirt to the two girls most determined to seduce Lapis Lazuli. She would never see the storm on the horizon.

                Headmistress Diamant Jaune was also unaware of the storms brewing in the various scare rooms being constructed with varying levels of expertise. Headmistress Jaune was trying very hard to get her paperwork done before her secretary Miss Melynas finished the filing she had assigned her so she could sneak out unnoticed and go to her quarters for the night and not cause a scene in the office. While Headmistress Jaune was normally fine with her secretary, she did efficient work after all among other things, around the holidays… any holidays really… she started to act somewhat strange.

                Decorating her office was the least of her oddities. And Jaune was already sick of the numerous screaming skulls and cackling witches she passed by to her inner sanctum every morning, only to end up warily eyeing the fake cobwebs in her office for fear that one of them was the real thing. But in the end, if it had just been the decorations Jaune could have handled it.

                But since about halfway through the month of October, Miss Melynas had started wearing a variety of costumes to work. The first had been innocent enough, a sheet ghost. Then a witch. Then a robot, and an alien. Frivolous and ridiculous, but since Jaune wasn’t expecting important visitors in the office it wasn’t much of a problem. It was still irritating that she would bring in costumes for Jaune however. Not that she would EVER wear such things! That was definitely crossing a line! Speaking of crossing lines, Miss Melynas was definitely crossing some sort of line with her choice of costume today…

                “HEADMISTRESS!” Miss Melynas said excitedly as she threw open the door to Jaune’s inner sanctum, “I’m finished, and, I VANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOD!”

                Jaune twitched. She had seen her secretary’s outfit that morning of course, but behind the desk. Even _then_ it seemed inappropriate for school. She was evidently meant to be some kind of vampire queen. Her blue hair was covered by a black wig, her large glasses switched for red contacts and heavy makeup paled her to a ghostly white with red lips that parted to reveal bright white fangs. She had a cape that stretched to her knees, but what was so… distracting for the headmistress was the choice of tight black spandex that covered her upper arms, leaving a very wide collar space and plunging neckline before leaving little to imagine in the hip region and revealing a rather lot of leg before ending in high heeled boots.

                It was very distracting indeed.

                “Please don’t do that, Miss Melynas,” Headmistress Jaune said, her cheeks flushing slightly as she focused her eyes down on the papers on her table, “Why… why are you wearing that costume anyway?”

                “What do you mean?” Miss Melynas asked, looking confused, “I’ve been wearing costumes for about a week now, you didn’t have any problems until now. Anyway, I told you that you can call me Deima so-“

                “I-I mean, this costume is… it’s not work appropriate!” Jaune coughed, “You can’t just… you can’t just walk around like that wearing… wearing… whatever that is!”

                “I’m a vampire queen, I mean, I thought it looked good…” Miss Melynas said with a frown, turned around, causing her cape to flare out and offer a view of her tightly-clad tushy. The headmistress groaned softly.

                “Th-that had nothing to do with it, it’s not work appropriate, what if a student walked in and saw you?”

                Miss Melynas hummed suddenly, smirking as she got closer to Jaune’s desk and learned over it, somehow revealing more cleavage in the action. “Are you saying you’re jealous of the students, Dia?”

                “I-it’s Headmistress Jaune to you, at work! Miss Melynas-“

                “Aw come oooooon!” Miss Melynas suddenly whined, her eyes tearing up as she fell heavily on the desk and pouted, “You know I love holidays like this! And maybe I just wanted to feel sexy for a while….”

                Jaune flushed and stood up, trying to put on her sternest expression now that her secretary had fallen into her more handle-able moods. “Now… Deima. You know I let you get away with a lot more than I would any other employee here, but there has to be a line drawn! No more costumes like this at work!”

                Miss Melynas let out a long sigh and looked away. “Fiiiiine.”

                “And get off my desk. Go home if you’re done your work.”

                “Okay,” Miss Melynas huffed, marching for the door as Jaune tried to ignore the way her hips had started swinging. She suddenly smirked over her shoulder. “But I can still wear this at home, right?”

                Headmistress Jaune cleared her throat and shuffled her papers, “Well naturally.”

                The door swung shut and the headmistress sighed deeply, wondering how she was going to survive the rest of the month if Miss Melynas had more costumes like that one kicking around.

 Or more Halloween decorations, Jaune thought in irritation as she once again noticed all the cobwebs around. It really was getting completely out of hand, it was as though there were more every day! Deima knew how she felt about-

Wait was that-?

“AH! DEIMA! _DEIMA COME BACK_! **DEIMA THERE IS A SPIDER ON MY DESK** ITS ON MY PAPERS COME GET IT DEIMA **_COME GET IT RIGHT NOW_**!”


	12. Halloween Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The finale to the Halloween trilogy and the scare rooms finally take effect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this was supposed to post on Halloween but I was last minute invited to a Halloween party and got too drunk to write. Sorry kids but here it is a day late.

Finally, Halloween night arrived. The girls of the campus frantically spent the morning arranging props and applying makeup. Some rooms simply held a variety of cobwebs and screaming skeletons not unlike the fare that decorated the headmistress’s office. Others could have easily been part of a professional endeavour, although more often than not the really good ones went over budget. Before the scare rooms opened for the evening, the Headmistress and her overly-excited secretary took a tour of the school to grade for presentation, theme and budget. The last marks, for level of fright, would be voted on by the rest of the students, and the room with the most points would receive the prize. The one with the least would be punished somehow. No word on what the prize or punishment would be of course but… well it was enough to bring out everyone’s best game for scaring if nothing else.

                When darkness of night fell across the campus, it was time for the fun to begin. The student teams were divided into three different groups, with one group running their scare rooms at a given time for the other two thirds to enjoy. While this meant that there would still be some scare rooms that would be missed out on, Rose’s group and Jasper’s group were in separate sections and therefore could each enjoy what the other group had put together.

                Rose’s group was in the first third of the rooms in the west wing of the arts building, which was more than a little stressful. While groups that were going later might still have contractors or even certain members of their teams putting finishing touches on their rooms, Rose’s group had to work with what they had. While they had had many wonderful ideas, when they actually got to the space in question they quickly realised that at least some of their ideas would have to be reworked, for example, when they tried to flood the floor they realised there was some kind of slant that caused a lot of pooling and flooding outside of the door to the room, which couldn’t be exactly plugged up for obvious reasons. Therefore instead they grabbed some of the mud from the pile in the center of the room and tried to spread it out more, but that left Amethyst more exposed, so Lapis tried to cover her with some brown yarn she found in one of the arts room drawers, hoping that worked enough to hide her.

                It was a bit slapped together in the end, not quite as polished as they would have liked, but as Pearl adjusted the thermostat to thirty degrees, turned on the humidifier, and plugged her nose while quickly spraying something that stank like sweat around the room (Amethyst had provided it for ‘ambiance’ but Pearl really didn’t want to know). Then Pearl ducked behind the large pile of broken tree branches that had been brought in from outside, ignoring the spiders that still clung to them as she watched and held the remote that would operate the sounds and lighting effects that she and her teammates had spent the most time learning how to set up.

                After the Headmistress’s examination (which had been mainly oohs and aahs from her secretary while the headmistress herself remained unreadable in her expression), Rose’s room was open to the student body, and they hoped it was as effective as they wanted it to be. Pearl dimmed the lights as they waited for their first guests.

                Peridot, Jasper, Ruby and Sapphire decided they may as well go together to check out the competition. The first couple rooms they entered were reassuring to them. The first had been tacky at best, with the girls dressed in basically sheets with some red paint smearing on them, and tried for some kind of ‘spooky forest’ but had used what was obviously rolled up bristle board for tree trunks and taped some sadly drooping tree branches to them. Nothing to worry about.

                The second group had been a little better, though the over-use of cobwebs did leave the group feeling kind of grossed out, it also was obvious what path the group before them had taken through the mess as they had broken many threads of the web, and the jump scare spider at the end wasn’t even that scary, though it might have had to do with the girl wearing the costume seeing Jasper looming in the dim lighting and shook too badly to do much other than jump out and shake like a leaf. Oh well.

                The third room was the first to make them a little concerned for their title. While it wasn’t immediately scary when they entered, just sort of… pitch black, once the door shut a blinding spotlight lit up a single chair in the centre of the room. The four walked toward the chair uncertainly before the lights went out again for what felt like seconds before it came back on and a girl dressed as a small child in pigtails with a giant grin sat in the chair, facing the group and keeping absolutely still.

                “Um…” Peridot glanced at Jasper and approached the girl, waving a hand in front of her face. “So that’s kind of dumb, I- AH!” Peridot shrieked as the girl darted forward and snapped at her fingers. Peridot hurried back to her companions as the girl giggled. Then the lights went out again and the temperature in the room dropped drastically. Sapphire and Ruby shivered, drawing closer together.

                “I t-told you that cold was scary!” Sapphire whispered. Ruby grunted, not dignifying a response.

                “AH!” Jasper jolted forward as she felt something brush against her back, and swung around blindly.

                “OW!”

                Suddenly, children’s laughter rung around the room, causing more shivers as it felt like more brushing hands and bits of fabric blew against the arms and backs and sides of the four teammates who had drawn closer in a huddle.

                “Oh my god,” Ruby whispered. This was... er…

                Suddenly there was a thump and a startled wail.

                “Oh shit,” Came a voice from the dark, “Jennifer, was that you?”

                “Y-yeah, I tripped and… I think… I’m bleeding?”

                “GET THE LIGHTS!”

                The lights came up, and Jasper, Peridot, Ruby and Sapphire blinked stupidly as the girls in the room, all dressed like children with clown masks (presumably for the finale) were now gathered around their friend who had blood running down her knee. Shrugging, the four left them as they went to call the nurse. So much for that room being scary… well, maybe they would still get high marks in the other areas, it was enough to be a little concerned about their overall standing.

                The fourth room would be Rose’s, as they were well aware as Amethyst had told them which room they had been assigned. They had to wait for the previous group to leave the room first, and they had look… kind of weirdly sweaty when they left? Was it really that scary?

                When the four entered the room, they realised it wasn’t exactly that it was scary, just humid as hell. Jasper undid the buttons on her uniform jacket, and Ruby and Sapphire both pulled their ties loose. The room itself looked pretty good, Jasper had to admit. There was bits of mud over the floor, with a big pile in the centre… covered in gross strands of something. Piles of sticks and leaves cluttered the room, and misty fog hung in the air thick enough in places to obscure the walls and make it hard to say exactly how big the room was at times. There was a clearly marked winding path going through the room and they began to walk along it, Ruby and Sapphire in front and Peridot and Jasper behind. The sound of running water could be heard somewhere in the mists to the far left.

                As they rounded the first bend, there was a snap of branches, and rising from a pile of leaves the giant figure of Rose Quartz loomed from the mist. She was wearing a white dress that was torn and caked with dirt, her face was deathly pale and she wore contacts that made her eyes look misty and glazed over with no pupil to be seen. Her long hair was full of debris, and overall she pulled off the look of having been a recently buried corpse. She let out a long moan, but upon realising whom they were entertaining she found a smile snuck its way onto her face, and she had trouble hiding it as she tried to groan out her scripted words without giggling.

                “W-welcome to the swamp of fears, women who wander these paths rarely leave again, their ghosts left to cling and carry off those who enter here to join our family for all eternity…” Rose let out a ‘ooooo’ noise and waved her arms. Peridot was unimpressed.

                “Yeah, okay, that make up BARELY looks real,” Peridot huffed as she marched past… only to slide in a patch of mud and face plant, to Ruby and Sapphire’s shared laughter as she pulled herself back to her feet, adjusting her prosthetic slightly and grimacing. Jasper snorted as well, giving Rose a respectful nod before they moved on, Rose still making moaning noises in the background as she buried herself beneath the leaves again.

                “Have a nice trip?” came a voice from the pile of mud and… stringy stuff. Peridot flushed slightly as Amethyst rose from the mud, wearing a snorkel and covered in enough mud to look like some sort of swamp beast. As Peridot opened her mouth to retort, Amethyst shrieked and shook herself, sending mud flying everywhere.

                “THAT GOT IN MY MOUTH!” Peridot yelled, spitting frantically on the floor. Ruby helped brush the worst of the clump that hit Sapphire out her hair, and Jasper huffed as she flicked a bit off of her nose. She looked down at Amethyst with a raised eyebrow.

                “Was that really necessary?” She asked.

                “No,” Amethyst grinned, “But it was fun! Getting these prissy bitches dirty is my favourite thing!”

                Jasper did find herself smirking at that as Amethyst saluted and sank back down in her mud pile. The group moved on, past the twigs that Pearl sat behind. Hidden speakers began to let out moans and shrieks, and low glowing lights resembling swamp gas lit the far reaches of the room, distracting the group as they approached the misty corner where they had heard water earlier.

                It was distraction enough for Lapis Lazuli to reach out and grab Peridot’s leg, (the non-prosthetic one) and pull it hard, causing the girl to fall again into a hidden wading pool in the corner where Lapis waited in her soaking wet dress with her hair in her eyes.

                Peridot was screaming by that point, and her teammates were frantically looking for her before the mist cleared enough to find Peridot had changed to laughing as Lapis tickled her frantically in the water.

                “LET GO! Let go, you’re going to get my leg waterlogged, I have t-to get- HAHA STOP!”

                Lapis finally relented, and Jasper pulled Peridot out. Lapis sat in the water, watching happily as Pearl appeared to hand Peridot a towel and send Lapis a disapproving look.

                “I thought we decided not to do that?” Pearl said bluntly.

                “It’s different when I KNOW Peridot,” Lapis smirked playfully. Jasper flushed brightly, seeing Lapis in clothes that were drenched and plastered against her it was…

                Jasper crossed her legs and hoped to god no one noticed.

                “Er, you… were very scary!” Jasper heaved out, and suddenly everyone was looking at her. Shit, bad plan! “Well, uh, got to go!” With that, Jasper swept up her teammates and bolted from the room, leaving the other team confused in her wake.

                Sapphire was really the only one to understand what had made Jasper leave so fast, and zie giggled to zirself as Jasper ran into the bathroom immediately after.

                When the second round of the scare rooms began, it was Jasper’s team that felt under prepared for what was to come. They had done their best to incorporate everyone’s ideas but… well, it remained to be seen it they could actually work with each other at all or not.

                Rose, Pearl, Amethyst and Lapis were excited to see what the other teams had come up with for their rooms. The first room they saw was kind of… avant-garde? The room was brightly lit, and two of the girls inside were dressed in black and white, sitting silently while the other two danced while wearing black morph suits. Amethyst found it plain weird. Lapis and Rose looked confused. Pearl seemed to like it though, saying it showed a lot of originality.

                The next room was more traditional, some jump scares of girls wearing gorilla and serial killer masks, and lots of strobe lights. Amethyst had to stay outside, as she admitted that strobe lights made her head hurt. And so it went on, all four girls finding rooms of varying levels of presentation. As they moved down the east wing hallway however, they overheard some… rather negative conversations about Jasper and Peridot’s room. Needless to say, they decided they had to take a look for themselves.

                When they entered the room, it was easy tell there had at least been an attempt to hide how much of a clusterfuck it was. Heavy black curtains had been hung around the space, forcing a path to walk down, but continuous alternating blasts of hot and cold air only served to make the group feel more irritable than annoyed. But it wasn’t all bad. Pearl was walking in front of Rose (as the path was narrow) and so was the first to encounter one of Peridot’s ghost projections. Pearl screeched as she reached a corner, unknowing that glass had been set up at the turn to serve as a focal point for a life-sized pirate ghost that launched itself toward her before vanishing, accompanied by deep, disembodied laughter. Pearl giggled lightly, and Rose took her hand with a comforting smile as they continued.

                “That _was_ pretty impressive,” Amethyst admitted, and then jumped as another pane of glass to one side lit up with a skeleton that leapt at her while a loud shriek and bang issued from hidden speakers. If the whole room had been this way it might have been interesting, as it was certainly building a level of suspense… but in that moment the black curtains dropped away and the four girls were left… kind of dumbfounded at the tableaux before them.

                One side of the rather tight space look like a half-melted slushy skating rink, with fans blowing frantically to cool the air as Sapphire, dressed as a rather out of place frozen corpse with zir eyepatch off to emphasize zir scarred and empty socket, made scary faces at them from across the room.

                The other side had a heater blasting, and orange and red tissue paper flames everywhere lit by ‘realistic flame’ lights, Ruby dressed in tiny plastic devil horns and a tail shouting that they were all going to hell.

                Lapis snorted, this was… kind of funny really. The other girls started laughing as well. “Did you four actually work together on anything for this?” Lapis asked, looking extremely amused. Sapphire and Ruby both flushed brightly and shrugged.

                Shaking their heads, the four moved on. At the end and near the exit door (Jasper’s group had been lucky to get one of the rooms with two doors), Jasper herself appeared, dressed as the grim reaper. Normally at this point she would give a final shriek as they left but, knowing Lapis was in the group, carefully remained silent as they passed by and out. She was hearted to hear Rose whisper that Jasper’s silence was pretty creepy after that mess. That was gratifying to know.

                Though honestly Rose was just trying to be nice. It worked though, so that was all that mattered.

                There was a short break until the third section, those who were in the classrooms on the second floor, would be given their turn. Rose’s and Jasper’s groups met up again in the stairwell, both exchanging stories of the other rooms they had seen. Rose and Pearl politely complimented Jasper’s room, and Sapphire and Jasper politely, if stiffly, returned the praise. The other four just kind of moodily stood by the concept that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all.

                At any rate, when the bell rang to indicate those upstairs were ready for visitors, the group of eight (plus the rest of the academy girls who had performed already) began to ascend the staircase at one end of the upstairs hallway. This corridor was narrow, and so each room would be visited in turn. They waited a while before they were allowed to enter the first room, watching the groups ahead of them move steadily in and out of rooms down the hall as they did so.

                The first room was the traditional fare that they had seen before, the plastic skeletons and an animatronic witch at a caldron, with all the cobwebs you could want. No sign of any students in it though, and that confused the eight companions as they left the room and shrugged, moving on to the next one. The next was more standard fare… if maybe a bit better done. The skeletons were more realistic, and there was a ghoul near the floor that made jittery movements and lurched at Rose as she passed, startling her and making her nearly crush Pearl’s hand (something she quickly apologized for).

                Again… no students.

                As they moved to the next room, now something resembling more a large junk room where only a few cackling shrunken head dolls indicated it was meant to be scary with no students in sight, the group began to question what exactly was going on.

                “Maybe the crowd to get upstairs was so big, the actual people running the rooms couldn’t get upstairs?” Jasper suggested. Ruby shook her head.

                “They should have been up here ages ago, though. There was a good ten minute break.”

                “Well, maybe they just ditched,” Amethyst shrugged, “It doesn’t look like they cared much about actually making their rooms scary.”

                “I don’t know…” Sapphire hummed, looking thoughtful, “We’ve already seen three rooms, and by the looks of the others coming out of the rooms further down the hall, they might be as confused as us.”

                “Then what’s going on?” Lapis huffed, “Who is supposed to be in this section anyway?”

                “I… I’m not sure?” Rose said in a questioning tone, “I can’t remember hearing anyone saying they were in the third group or on the second floor…”

                “No one at all?” Pearl shivered, drawing closer to her girlfriend, “I… I’m sure someone has to have made these rooms!”

                But as they continued, the rooms only continued to confuse them. The Halloween decorations grew more and more realistic, and the jump scares more effective. One room even had a live raven in a cage, squawking away for goodness sake! But there were no students at all. None. Things were getting more and more alarming, and finally at the last room Lapis held up her hands before they entered.

                “I just realised,” she said quickly, “I haven’t seen any groups come out of this room yet!”

                “Do you think we should wait?” Jasper asked.

                “Um, I think it’ll be fine to just go in,” Amethyst smirked, “Not like we’re interrupting a performance…”

                “No, I mean, I haven’t seen anyone come out AT ALL!” Lapis insisted. Other girls overheard Lapis further down the hall, and were starting to get closer, looking concerned.

                “No one’s come out?”

                “But these rooms aren’t that big.”

                “Why isn’t anyone up here? It’s just creepy!”

                “Seriously, do you know ANYONE who was in the third group?”

                Jasper, finally, decided she had had enough. “GEEZ! You’re all such babies, I’m going in, might as well get it over with.”

                With that, Jasper threw the door open and stepped inside, the door swinging shut behind her. Suddenly there was a loud scream behind the door and silence.

                Five minutes passed. Then ten. By fifteen minutes, everyone was quite sure Jasper wasn’t coming back, and many of the students were running for the stairs, convinced there was a serial killer waiting at the end of the hall for them.

                But Jasper’s teammate’s, and Rose’s, would not leave Jasper quite as easily. They shuffled by the door, trying to decide the best way of staging a rescue.

                “Someone should go first, while the rest hold the door open. If something happens to them, we’ll know what it is anyway. Then the rest of us can run in and save them!” Peridot said with certainty.

                “No one should be going in there alone,” Lapis said reasonably, looking rather shaken and had looked that way since she heard Jasper scream. “Just in case something IS wrong with this part of the event. I… I will go, but, well…”

                “I’ll go too, then,” Amethyst snorted, “I swear you’re making a big deal out of nothing though.”

                This decided, Lapis and Amethyst pulled over the door to the room and stepped inside while Ruby held the door open. They stepped into the room and felt a mixture of relief, disappointment, and confusion. While dark, the room seemed empty of decorations or people. Which… honestly made them more afraid when they realised it.

                “I’ll get the others,” Amethyst said softly, looking more disconcerted than before as she went back to the door and Lapis moved further into the room. She looked at the light from the hallways as Amethyst left the room to talk to the others… Ruby pulled away for a second…

                BAM! The door slammed shut. Lapis heard frantic bangs and twists of the knob, but suddenly the door appeared locked. Lapis ran toward the door- and suddenly was grabbed by her waist and dragged backwards.

                Lapis felt her insides freeze. She began to tremble as her eyes glazed over. In her mind she heard shouting, saw her mother, her mother wasn’t moving, she was eleven and her mother, they were still kicking her and she was eleven and they were grabbing her and she _couldn’t do anything-_

                “Lapis! Lapis- oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Jasper let go quickly, and to her horror Lapis fell to the ground, curling into a ball and screaming… screaming so loudly…

                “Miss Lazuli!” the lights suddenly went on and a woman with blue braids and large glasses, wearing a cape and cheesy vampire fangs ran over to the girl on the floor.

                “Miss Melynas, I-I didn’t mean to-“

                “No, it’s… oh no it’s all my fault!” Miss Melynas moaned, “The Headmistress let me set up this floor as a treat for the students and I thought it would be fun to-“

                “W-what…” Lapis was still shaking, but saw Miss Melynas above her, “You… you’re the secretary.”

                The secretary to the headmistress winced, “Y-yes… I’m sorry, I didn’t think about if the girls would have a poor reaction, here, Jasper let the rest of your friends in. I’m sorry I tried to have you scare them like the last group scared you, and you can all take the back stairs down to the party with the rest, I’ll get Miss Lazuli to the nurse’s office, oh what will her father say, I’ll be lucky to keep my job…”

                “No, d-don’t tell him,” Lapis muttered, and Miss Melynas looked relieved as Jasper shook herself and went to the door to let her frantic friends come in and reassure themselves that everything was okay.

                Rose and Pearl offered to help escort Lapis to the infirmary. Jasper knew she had done enough. Why did she keep messing up like this?

                Peridot, Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire seemed to enjoy eating candy and dancing to cheesy ‘spooky’ music in the school banquet hall as much as anyone else. They didn’t even notice Jasper leave to return to the room early. She was texting with Pearl to get information on Lapis, who was apparently feeling better. Pearl and Rose would be going to the party soon with her.

                Jasper really didn’t feel up to it. The night had been going so well, and now… now what?

                An hour passed before she heard the door to the Scholarship House open and close. Pearl, maybe. Or Peridot. Amethyst would be out all night of course.

                “Um… hello, Jasper.”

                Jasper nearly fell off the couch.

                “Wha- L-Lapis?” her eyes were as round as saucers, “I-I didn’t- I’m sorry I just- M-Miss Melynas told me-“

                Lapis held up a hand, swallowing hard and Jasper swallowed as well. “I… I know, Rose and Pearl told me.” She breathed deeply, folding her arms and looking away slightly, “Look I… I know you don’t mean to keep scaring me. Everyone else seems to like you, and you’re best friends with Pearl and I just… I want…” she breathed out heavily, “I just want to maybe… start over? I’m going to… to try and work on remembering you aren’t trying to hurt me which… which will be kind of hard for me but I’ll try… and you keep trying not to, uh, you know-“

                “Yell?”

                “Yeah,” Lapis tried a tiny smile, “We have the same friends, they worry about both of us. Maybe… we should try to be friends too?”

                It was more than Jasper had hoped for after this mess. “Y-yes! Sure! Of course!”

                Lapis looked visibly relieved, “So, are you coming back to the party? They haven’t announced the winners and losers of the scare room contest yet.”

                Jasper discovered quickly that Rose and Pearl had been waiting outside. The four returned to the banquet hall just in time for the announcements.

                The winners of the contest, to Jasper’s annoyance, were the group of girls who had dressed as children. Apparently they were some of the few that hadn’t got over budget (something Jasper’s group had been guilty of). They won backstage passes to a concert for a popular boy band that would be in town in November.

                The loser, it was announced, was Miss Melynas because according to the Headmistress, she was lucky there wasn’t a lawsuit and she was never letting her do something like that again.

                Miss Melynas pouted, and with a cough, the Headmistress announced that her… punishment… would be administered later. Luckily none of the students were close enough to the podium to see the tiny smiles both the Headmistress and secretary sported after that little announcement.


	13. Dance Dance Fall in Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amethyst and Peridot have a night on the town and meet some new friends in Beach City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND SO MY OTP BLOSSOMS *screaming to myself as I write*

It wasn’t that Amethyst wasn’t interested in sex. God knows she liked to have the latest gossip on who was doing who, and enjoyed learning about everyone’s sexual histories, and watched enough porn on her own time. She was plenty interested on an… well, to say ‘intellectual’ level might be a little strong. She was interested in the theory.

                But she discovered in middle school that when guys or girls tried to move her along to, ahem, intimate touched… it wasn’t that enjoyable for her. Sure, she was fifteen. And hey, maybe ten years down the road she might change her mind. Sexuality is fluid after all. But for the moment, she knew sex just wasn’t for her. It kind of made her stomach queasy to think of touching someone that way herself, or being touched for that matter. That was simply that.

                Again though, the lack of desire for sexual engagement did not imply any other lack of desire. She was fully capable of getting crushes, mostly on girls (though occasionally if there was a really, really cool guy), and she kind of turned into a mess if the crush got out of hand. She secretly thought it would be kind of nice to hold hands with someone, and talk about hopes and dreams… maybe even kiss and cuddle a bit, to have someone to be her best friend with maybe a bit more intimacy and security that they would stay together? Was that so bad? She knew, logically, that having a relationship without sex was possible, but it was a hard thing to tell someone. Especially when she tended to talk about sex so openly, people usually just assumed she’d be down for anything, so she tended attract people who wanted that and… it was sort of a problem.

                It was even more of a problem about mid-November when Amethyst realised that her appreciation for her roommate’s cute angry face had fanned into a flame of something that made her cheeks flush a bit when they spoke. Of all people, she had to get a crush on _Peridot?_

                Firstly, she was a nerd. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. But like, she was already sort of dating Lapis? And like, even if it was an open relationship, it was pretty obvious is was physical as fuck, which Amethyst wasn’t into. Meanwhile Peridot already said she didn’t like the concept of doing all the romantic things Amethyst wanted… it would never work, how could it? An aromantic and an asexual? That’s just… incompatible.

                Still, even as these thoughts tumbled in her head, Amethyst couldn’t help but feel kind of elated that they were actually becoming better friends at least. Given the drama that had been going on since Halloween it was nice to get some reprieve with someone else largely dedicated to staying out of it.

                What had been going on? Well, Amethyst didn’t want to really deal with it right now, but to make a very long story short, Lapis and Jasper’s truce had escalated quickly and hit a wall rather violently shortly after... according to Peridot, Lapis had become rather more difficult to hook up with these days. Apparently Rose and Pearl had been meddling as well, which made both of them more difficult to hang out with too without it seeming like she’d chosen a ‘side’ in all this… Ruby and Sapphire were having one of their legendary stand offs too for an unrelated reason, so in the end maybe the reason Amethyst and Peridot were getting along more was just because they had run out of other options. But Amethyst wasn’t really going to complain about that. She didn’t like it when her friends fought of course, but as long as she had someone to escape from it with, it wasn’t so bad.

                Which is why she and Peridot had decided to go into town to walk around and find something fun to do after class one Friday. The walk into Beach City had been kind of exhausting, but it was worth it to see some normal people walking around for once instead of an endless parade of snobby girls in skirts and ties. The two girls had traded in their uniforms for casual clothes today. Amethyst had on a purple fall jacket to keep out the briskly cold sea air, with a black tank top underneath and a pair of ratty leggings her mother had tried to throw out on three separate occasions, which did not do very much to keep out the cold but at least they were comfortable. Peridot was dressed a bit more conservatively, a green and yellow jacket over a white t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans.

                They decided pretty quickly to visit the arcade once they caught sight of it. Getting a buttload of tokens, they faced the room with very different ideas on what they wanted to play first.

                “Well, I’m going to head off to the first person shooters,” Amethyst said with a lazy grin and stretch. “Want to join? Bet I can beat you.”

                “Eh,” Peridot shrugged, “First person shooters aren’t really my thing.”

                Amethyst frowned, “Really? Uh, that’s fine… well, what if we did a racing game? Yeah, I like sitting in the fake cars, there’s one here I used to play all the time in the arcade near my house! The goal is to run into as many things as possible!”

                “Ah,” Peridot looked at the game in question and looked a little bored, “Nah, I’m not interested.”

                “Seriously?”

                “YOU can still go and play whatever you want, you don’t HAVE to play with me,” Peridot pointed out.

                Amethyst kicked at the ground. “Well, it kind of sucks to play alone…”

                Peridot smirked. “True… it WOULD be a shame for you to miss out on getting beaten by me…”

                Amethyst raised an eyebrow. “Well, kind of hard to get beat by you if you don’t agree to a game. What do _you_ want to play?”

                “Let’s see…” Peridot looked around the room for a moment before smirking again and pointing at the only game in the entire room with a line up. Amethyst nearly gagged.

                “What- DDR? Are you _serious_? Video games shouldn’t make ANYONE move that much!” Amethyst glared at the machine as though its existence personally insulted her. “Plus there’s like, a huge line!”

                “Well obviously, it’s the most popular game in any arcade. Because it’s good. And for that matter, I’m amazing at it,” Peridot gave Amethyst a smug look, “Of course if you’re not up for a challenge…”

                Amethyst’s eyes narrow. “Fine. One round. Winner picks next game.”

                Peridot hummed. “I suppose that’s fair… and loser has to doa dare  for the winner, winner’s choice.”

                “Sounds fine to me,” Amethyst grinned and the two got in line, watching the pairs in front of them take their turns to varying degrees of effectiveness. After a short while, Amethyst side eyed Peridot. “So, you’re really good at this game?”

                “Yes.”

                “Even with your plastic leg?”

                Peridot grumbled and her fist clenched. “Yes. Even with my _plastic leg_.”

                “Wow, that’s impressive.”

                “Impressive because I’m skilled at a game, or impressive because I’m _disabled_ and skilled at a game.”

                Amethyst frowned. “Well… wouldn’t that make it more impressive? You’re kind of starting at a disadvantage, and you’re better than, you know-“

                “ _Normal_ people?”

                Amethyst flushed. “I-I don’t mean it like that! I just mean, well, working with one leg-“

                “Amethyst, I was BORN with one leg. I’ve been using a prosthetic my whole life, and it’s a GOOD prosthetic. My mom designed it herself. I have enough practice and precision controlling this thing- you’ve SEEN me walk and run around with it since you MET me, does it look like I have that much of a problem? I mean, yeah, there are some people with prosthetics that have a hard time doing those things, especially for long periods of time. But I know my limits, and DDR isn’t one of them. I’m just good. Not ‘good for a disabled person’. I’m just good. Got it?” Peridot snapped, poking Amethyst in the chest. Amethyst cleared her throat a little and then nodded.

                “Yeah, geez, um… sorry Perry.”

                “... Peridot. And I am still going to kick your butt,” Peridot said resolutely as the pair in front of them moved aside, letting Peridot and Amethyst take their places on the arrow pads. Peridot quickly put the mode on medium for Amethyst and expert for herself (to make it _fair_ apparently). Then both girls argued fiercely over which song they should pick before settling on 99 Red Balloons, because Amethyst actually knew and liked that song, and Peridot agreed it was enough of a challenge to be bothered with.

 _You and I in a little toy shop_  
buy a bag of balloons  
with the money we've got  
Set them free at the break of dawn  
'Til one by one, they were gone  
Back at base, bugs in the software  
Flash the message,  
"Something's out there"  
Floating in the summer sky  
99 red balloons go by.

The song started off slow enough for Amethyst to find her feet, but truthfully she was well aware she sucked majorly at DDR and was definitely only doing this to make Peridot happy. Still, she was doing okay so far, even if she was missing about a third of the cues. Peridot, while not entirely perfect, was definitely hitting them all at least at the ‘good’ level and was working up a hell of a combo.

  
_99 red balloons_  
floating in the summer sky  
Panic bells, it's red alert  
There's something here  
from somewhere else  
The war machine springs to life  
Opens up one eager eye  
Focusing it on the sky  
Where 99 red balloons go by.

Speed was picking up now, and Amethyst was missing about half of them now, her feet tangling beneath her as she panted trying to keep up.  She was probably have lost by now if she was playing by herself. Peridot’s combo broke, but she was quickly working up another one. In fact, Peridot was starting to draw a small group of onlookers.

  
  
_99 Decision Street,_  
99 ministers meet  
To worry, worry, super-scurry  
Call the troops out in a hurry  
This is what we've waited for  
This is it boys, this is war  
The president is on the line  
As 99 red balloons go by.

Amethyst had pretty much given up at this point, tired out already and watching the arrows scroll by as the announcers voice said “Oh! Miss! Too bad!” on repeat. She turned her eyes to Peridot, who was concentrating too hard to notice she had stopped.

  
_99 Knights of the air_  
ride super-high-tech jet fighters  
Everyone's a Silverhero  
Everyone's a Captain Kirk  
With orders to identify  
To clarify and classify  
Scramble in the summer sky  
As 99 red balloons go by.

 

Some of the onlookers were cheering now, and Amethyst took a look at them. It was a group of slightly older teenagers that probably went to the local high school, and looked… well, ‘punk rock’ would probably be a good descriptor. There was a guy with a black ACDC t-shirt and hair to his butt, one girl with a spiked collar and white hair that was kind of shaped like an onion if you wanted Amethyst’s honest opinion, and a black girl with dreadlocks, torn jeans and a sweatshirt hanging off one shoulder. They looked pretty impressed with Peridot, and Amethyst could hardly blame them. She was kind of amazing.

  
  
  
_99 dreams I have had_  
In every one a red balloon  
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty  
In this dust that was a city  
If I could find a souvenier  
Just to prove the world was here...  
And here is a red balloon  
I think of you and let it go.

The song slowed, and Peridot threw her hands in the air in her finishing move. “HA! Did you SEE that? I wiped the FLOOR with you, Amethyst!”

Amethyst grinned. Peridot was cute. “Yep, looks like it.”

Peridot then noticed the cheering and turned to her adoring audience to pose and look cool.

“That was amazing!” The boy with long ass hair said with a huge smile on his face, “I’ve never seen anyone actually COMPLETE an expert mode dance before!”

“That’s because you weren’t there the time I played, Greg,” the black girl said with a snort, “But still, you’re good, I’ll admit that.”

“Oh, right, sorry Bren,” Greg cleared his throat, “Anyway, Vidalia, Bren and me were going to head down to the club tonight, you two should definitely come with us!”

Amethyst noticed the other girl, Vivaldi, give her a look up and down before popping a bubble of gum and shrugging. “Yeah, you should come. It could be cool or whatever.”

Amethyst had to admit, she kind of wanted to hang out with actually cool people again. “Huh, that sounds kind of cool, but uh, I left my fake ID in our dorm room…”

“What?” Greg looked confused, “No, it’s all ages night, only age appropriate drinks for us!”

“Yeah, it’s _not_ cool to drink before it’s legal,” Bren said flatly. Amethyst raised an eyebrow. Wow. Small town kids were weird. Oh well, still could be fun.

“Well, I guess that’s still cool. What do you say Perry? Want to go?”

“PeriDOT,” Peridot growled, then sighed heavily, “I guess… I don’t know… yeah, sure why not.” Then she suddenly looked smug again. “I reserve my right to give you your punishment dare at the club though.”

Amethyst looked a bit apprehensive for a moment, before realised that this was PERIDOT and there was no way she would think of a good dare, so she was probably fine. “Yeah, sure, whatevs. So, when were y’all thinking of heading to the club?”

          “Well, we were going to grab some food first, Bren’s parents own a pizza shack.”

          “Been in the family two generations already,” Bren said with a wink, “Best pizza in the state!”

          “Sure, I’m down for pizza!” Amethyst cheered, quickly following the other three teenagers into the parking lot, Peridot following a short ways behind.

          “Woah, you have a CAR?” Amethyst said excitedly as Bren got behind the wheel.

          “Yep! Well, it’s the store car, for pizza deliveries. But my parents pretty much let me use it whenever.”

          “That’s so cool!” Amethyst said excitedly as she hopped into the front seat screaming shotgun.

          “Hey!” Peridot snapped, “Why do you get front seat?”

          “Uh, cause I called shotgun, DUH?” Amethyst snorted.

          “WOOHOO! I CALL MIDDLE SEAT!” Greg said excitedly, getting into the middle of the back. Peridot and Vidalia climbed in on either side, Vidalia looking indifferent while Peridot looked… less than enthused.

          “Hey, why would you want middle seat?” Peridot asked as Bren pulled onto the road, “No one likes the middle seat!”

          “Well, I do!” Greg said with a laugh, “You can see out the front, and get to hear everyone’s conversations, you can’t feel left out in the middle!”

          “Phht, uh, sure,” Peridot said, looking sceptical.

          Amethyst turned around in her seat and smiled. “So, Vidalia, you go to this club a lot?”

          “Eh, when it’s all ages night,” Vidalia said, and then popped another gum bubble.

          “Cool, cool, so what do you do when it’s not?”

          “Well, we’re in a band kind of, I guess,” Vidalia said, side eyeing Greg.

          “Hell yeah we are!” Greg said excitedly, his voice breaking slightly, “We’re Bren and the Friends! Bren sings, I play guitar, and Vidalia’s the drummer!”

          “A drummer? That’s awesome!” Amethyst said happily, “I always wanted to play the drums, but my mom wouldn’t let me get them cause she was afraid our neighbours in the apartment would make a noise complaint.”

          Vidalia popped another bubble. “That sucks.”

          “Ugh, TELL me about it,” Amethyst rolled her eyes. “So who writes your songs?”

          Vidalia pointed her fingers at both Greg and Bren.

          “Ah, well,” Greg flushed, “I’m better with the music, and Bren’s better with the lyrics, so we’re a pretty good team!”

          “Yeah, I’d say so,” Bren grinned, eyes on the road and hands safely on the steering wheel, “But I mean, can you imagine if Greg was writing the lyrics? What was that one song you wrote… Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart? You don’t even have a van, Greg!”

          Greg pouted, “Well, I’ll have a van one day, and then we can play that song while we’re on tour in that van!”

          “Heh, yeah okay, if we ever go on tour we can sing your van song,” Bren grinned. Everyone laughed except Peridot, who was staring out the window with absolutely nothing to contribute as the other four dissolved into talking about the music they were into. Maybe… maybe Greg had a point about the middle seat. She filed that mental note for later.

          “Well, here’s my place,” Bren said, parking in front of a building with a large sign with a slice of pizza on it. The group trooped into the store, Amethyst laughing with the others and Peridot trailing behind and feeling progressively more left out.

          “So, what kind of pizza do you guys want?” Bren asked as she slid behind the counter and tied an apron on. A woman who looked very much like Bren suddenly came out from the back and looked excitedly at Bren and started moving her hands rapidly. Bren watched, nodded, and then rapidly signed back at, presumably, her mother and then turned to her friends.

          “My mom wants to know if you all want some milkshakes too. Oh, and Amethyst, Peridot, this is my mom. Don’t worry too much if you don’t know ASL, my mom lip reads pretty well, and we have pens and paper at the counter over there if you have to write anything down for her,” Bren explained. Amethyst and Peridot waved, and Bren’s mom waved back with a bright smile still on her face.

          After that, all the teenagers continued to make small talk while Bren and Bren’s mom made up pizza and milkshakes for everyone, except Peridot who admitted to being lactose intolerant to an extent and got a Coke instead. She sipped it slowly as she listened to the others jump conversations topics, hoping to find an opening to join in.

          “Yeah, my computer is completely down for viruses, I’m going to have to bring it to the tech geek store,” Greg said with a sigh, “I don’t know if I have the money though…”

          “Hey, don’t worry about that, you’ve got a resident tech geek right here, right Peridot?” Amethyst waved and Peridot perked up.

          “Huh? Uh, yeah! I guess I could take a look, I AM at Diamond Academy on a computer scholarship after all.”

          “Woah, you go to Diamond Academy?” Bren said with wide eyes, “So you’re rich kids, huh?”

          “Heh, not us,” Amethyst snorted, “We’re both on scholarships, I won an essay contest.”

          “Oh, so you’re smart,” Vidalia said with only a hint of interest. Peridot puffed her chest out.

          “Well, naturally. They only take the best of the best, even if you ARE rich, so we’re pretty amazing,” Peridot said with a smile, to appropriately impressed looks.

          “Hey,” Vidalia said suddenly, “Maybe I could teach you drums if you tutor me in English?”

          Amethyst looked shocked for a moment, then beamed in pure joy, “HELL YES!”

          “Wow, weren’t we lucky to bump into you two!” Greg grinned. Peridot preened, glad she was getting recognition at last.

          When the pizza was passed out and devoured at a speed only teenagers could achieve, Bren quickly signed to her mom where they were going and when they would be back before they headed back out the door to the car and quickly drove to the club that was nearby. Finding parking was a bit hard, and there was a line to get in, but since there was good company, time flew by until they were inside. They quickly found a dark corner and started dancing in their small group.

They all seemed to have their own dance styles. Greg was mostly head banging and air guitar. Bren and Vidalia did a lot of hip bumping and a few moves slightly reminiscent of a funky tango. Peridot did her best to gyrate to the music, and did a few moves that Amethyst knew were an attempt at the Robot… what a nerd! She was great at DDR, but obviously Peridot wasn’t so great at dancing without cues. Oh well, time to show this crew what it was to REALLY dance! Amethyst moved her hips first, then moving her entire body like a wave, jerking and twisting, all in smooth motions and perfectly in time with the music. In a few moments, the other teens were all watching her, not quite stopping their own movements but still in awe of Amethyst’s skill.

“Woah Amethyst! You can really dance!” Bren grinned, “Me too!” And with that she left Vidalia to start matching Amethyst’s moves as well. Vidalia even smiled as the two danced together. Peridot noticed, to her surprise, she kind of wished she could join in… though admittedly she knew her dance style was… very different from that. For someone who didn’t like sex, what Amethyst and Bren were doing looked pretty damn close… Peridot blushed furiously.

“A-Amethyst!” Peridot shouted suddenly over the music. Amethyst paused and looked at her.

“What?”

“D-dance with me!” Peridot said suddenly, “That’s your dare, so you can’t back out!”

Amethyst stared at Peridot for a second… then laughed loudly. “Haha! Peridot, you’re a riot! Sure, yeah, let’s dance!”

Bren moved back to Vidalia and Greg, the three dancing a respectful distance away (sort of knowing where this was going) as Amethyst grabbed Peridot in close and the two began to imitate some of the funky tango moves they’d seen Vidalia and Bren doing earlier. Peridot was kind of shaky and nearly tripped over Amethyst’s feet, but Amethyst picked it up fast enough to lead pretty well so it was still fun enough.

And… their faces were REALLY close together… Peridot’s blush became even more pronounced as Amethyst spun them both around again and again.

“I- h-hey Amethyst um… I just…”

“Yeah?”

“Y-you… I just want to say that… you’re… really cool.”

Amethyst found herself blushing at that… but she grinned, “Hey, thanks! Uh, well you’re a nerd. But you know, a cool nerd.”

The two girls stopped dancing for a moment and just looked at each other.

“Um…” Amethyst cleared her throat, “You _know_ , if you… I mean if you… want to… uh, I mean I don’t mind if you’re still hooking up with Lapis if you want to um, sort of… uh… want to make out sometime.”

Peridot looked like she’d been slapped in a weirdly good way. “I-I, well I mean, it’s cool if you just want to… you know, casually do that… or like, um, maybe… sleep in the same bed again… like that one time… we wouldn’t go any further obviously but like, I don’t know! What do you call that kind of relationship?!”

Amethyst giggled slightly, looking kind of unsure, “I have no idea, but I mean, I guess we can figure it out? I mean, I like you so…”

“I-I guess I like you too,” Peridot cleared her throat, “S-so, we can maybe figure something out? I mean, I don’t really do relationships or romance or dating but… I don’t know! Can we just be platonically close and make out sometimes? Can’t that just be a thing?”

“Sure it can!” Amethyst said with certainty, and in that same moment of certainty they both crashed their lips together and made out on the dance floor to the cheers of the other teens.

When Bren drove them back to campus with the promise to invite them next All-Ages night, Amethyst and Peridot sat in the back seat casually with their knees pressed lightly together. And when they got back to their room (it was late and Pearl and Jasper were already in bed), the two of them quickly changed into their pjs and once Peridot got her leg and arm off for the night the two curled up in Peridot’s bed under the covers. Things were an awkward sprawl at first as the two scrambled for a comfortable position, but once Peridot got up behind Amethyst and threw her arm over her side, they’d figured it out, and soon the two were snoring up a storm.

In the morning, however, when Peridot discovered that Amethyst had stolen all the blankets, she realised that sleeping together might not be something that happened every night. Still, Amethyst in a blanket cocoon was cute at least, so Peridot could safely say she regretted nothing.

 

 

((PS. Here is a fanart I drew of my own story because I do that on rare occasion even if I suck at drawing usually. All the gem students in their school uniforms!! I guess. Idk))


	14. Bad for Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis seduces Jasper. Kind of out of nowhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooooooooooooo
> 
> Yeah this chapter was really, really hard for me to write. I know I needed it to happen for future chapters, but like, I don't like putting my girls through this shit. 
> 
> That's why this took so long. Next one might be hard to write too. But I'll get it out eventually. Just... *sigh*
> 
> *Trigger warning for light dub con and some abusive behavior in this chapter*

Jasper knew things had been better with Lapis lately. She was responding to her without a problem, Jasper even caught her smiling on occasion, and Jasper was doing much better at keeping herself from shouting.

          But when Lapis propositioned her, Jasper couldn’t help but think it came out of nowhere.

          “W-what?” Jasper had sputtered, startled. They had been in the library on one of the quiet and sparsely populated upper floors studying for World History. It had been Lapis’ idea, and at the time she had suggested it she told Jasper that Rose and Pearl would be joining them. But once they were there, Lapis apparently got a text from Rose saying they couldn’t make it.

          Jasper had been afraid Lapis would leave too, but she said it was fine and they had sat in relatively comfortable silence for a while. A while… and then Lapis had without warning asked if Jasper wanted to make out.

          “You heard me,” Lapis said, a tiny smirk on her lips, and goodness they DID look awfully kissable but… this was so sudden! “I know you like me, and I figure, hey, what better way to break any tension, right? You know I’m poly, so you know it’s not really a problem for me.”

          “But,” Jasper shook her head sharply trying to shake the muffled buzzing that was muddling her thoughts, “But I thought… I mean I know we said we’d start over, and things have been good, but don’t you think this is a little… soon?”

          Lapis snorted. “Did Peridot not tell you how we got together? I only knew her about an hour before we made out, honestly, it’s just for fun.”

          Jasper frowned slightly. She didn’t think of making out as just ‘for fun’, but… well, she couldn’t deny wanting to kiss Lapis. “Well I guess if it’s just… I mean I guess its fine… yeah! Yeah, let’s make out!”

          “Perfect,” Lapis then wasted no time leaning across the table and locking lips. Jasper felt her heart flutter as her lips parted and Lapis’ wet tongue entered with a surprising amount of force. Jasper gasped into the kiss as Lapis pressed herself against the larger girl, and Jasper was suddenly hyper aware of how very small and slight Lapis felt against her, like a feather against a boulder or something.

          Suddenly Jasper heard soft gasps from nearby and broke apart from Lapis quickly, looking wide eyed at a small group of girls who were frantically whispering to each other and staring openly. Jasper felt colour rush to her cheeks.

          “Why’d you stop?” Lapis asked, sounding kind of annoyed now. Jasper winced.

          “Someone saw us! Now everyone is going to know you-”

          “That I like _girls_?” Lapis stressed, and then laughed lightly, “Does it look like I care what they think?”

          “Well…” Jasper cast about for a flaw in this, “What if the word gets around, and it gets back to your father?”

          Lapis winced a little at that. “Ah… okay then…” she smirked suddenly, “Then, do you want to take this somewhere more… _private?_ ”

          Jasper’s eyes widened. Yes, this was weird, and sudden, and it did sort of cross her mind that Lapis MIGHT have some ulterior motive but… this was what she had wanted… wasn’t it?

          It was in this state of mind that Jasper jerked her head into a nod, and Lapis smiled back. She had such a cute smile… and then they were packing their bags and Jasper was following Lapis like a puppy as she led the way upstairs to the top floor of the building. That floor was mainly archives that had been digitized for the most part so it was rare to find students up there unless it was close to the end of a semester and someone was working on an especially in depth research paper. As it was, the floor was silent as a crypt when they entered, and Jasper nearly held her breath for fear of breaking the peace.

          Lapis gestured for Jasper to keep following her into the shelves of files and newspapers that reached to the ceiling, far into one of the back corners. Jasper took a deep breath… only to cough from the dust.

          “A-are we gonna… um, here?” Jasper cleared her throat and looked a little unsure, but Lapis merely shook her head.

          “Come on, almost there now,” she then took Jasper’s wrist and dragged her past a shelf and Jasper was surprised to see a door that would have been hidden if it was looked at from any direction but dead on. Jasper blinked as Lapis easily opened the door and turned on the light. The room was small, and looked like it was likely a clean environment used to examine the more fragile documents, if the cabinet of plastic gloves was anything to go by. It looked like it had been cleaned recently, so it wasn’t forgotten or anything, but it was so out of the way…

          “How do you know about this place?” Jasper asked once Lapis had closed the door. Lapis shrugged her bag off into the corner before answering.

          “Peridot knew about it for some reason and brought me here once, I didn’t ask how she found it,” Lapis said and then hopped up to sit on the table in the centre of the room and slipped one of the sleeves of her dress off one shoulder. “So, are we going to do this or what?”

          Jasper swallowed hard and hesitated. “Are… are you sure you just want to jump into this? I mean, I’m not saying I don’t want to! But I mean, don’t… don’t people usually do… something… like a date or…”

          Lapis squinted at Jasper for a moment, then let out a sigh and got off the desk, striding over to Jasper and holding out her hand. “Want to dance?”

          “What?”

          “You said you want this, but you want a ah, date? Well, I don’t date really, but maybe we could spin around a little, get into the mood?”

          Jasper looked dumbfounded.

          “Come on,” Lapis’ eyelids lowered, “You want this, I’m giving it to you. Dance with me.”

          Jasper felt a smile twitch onto her face and grew into a grin. She took the offered hand, and in the quiet she held Lapis as she danced, dutifully bracing and leading her in a short circle. It didn’t last long though before Lapis had leapt on her, the two meshing together in a kiss that Jasper definitely felt power behind. This felt good. And so she kept thinking that as Lapis pulled her to the desk again, and gently told her all the ways she could touch her, and obliging. And then Lapis turned to Jasper and returned the favour… to an extent. Jasper’s skirt didn’t come off, but even so, it was more than she had ever hoped for… surely…

          When it was done though, Lapis had left quickly, telling Jasper she would text if she wanted to do this again, and vanished into the stacks before Jasper had gathered up her things again. Things had been going well though, why was it over so fast? Why had Lapis left so fast?

          This wasn’t their last time, however, Jasper didn’t really spend much time alone with Lapis excepting if she wanted to do something physical. They hung out with the rest of the group, but they didn’t talk any more than before. Only sometimes Lapis would call on her, and she would come, because… well, Lapis was right… she wanted this… didn’t she?

          Until one day when Lapis announced without warning that she wanted to go ‘all the way’, and Jasper… wasn’t so sure. They were back on the top floor of the library, it was the only place Lapis agreed to meet and Jasper suspected that she had told no one they had been hooking up… Jasper hadn’t either, but she wasn’t sure what the others would say either…

          “I don’t know if I’m ready for… that…” Jasper had said, quietly, and repeated it even when Lapis kissed lower. But well… she had _wanted this_ hadn’t she? And… well Lapis was doing well… it didn’t sit right… but in the end, Jasper had let Lapis get into her lap and do what she did. The weird thing was that Lapis didn’t even seem that into it, and Jasper found the whole experience uncomfortable. Something was wrong about this. When Lapis finished she did actually stop to sit on the floor a moment and rest.

          “Why are we doing this?” Jasper had asked in a quiet voice.

          “What?” Lapis blinked, her eyes focusing, “This? Cause, I don’t know, it’s… something to do I guess…”

          “Is that it?” Jasper grunted, “Like a distraction?”

          “I don’t know!” Lapis said, throwing her hands up, “Do I need a reason? I just, I decided to just give you what you want, and then I could just… I don’t know, forget about it…”

          “You want to forget about this?”

          “No- yes? I just, I just…” Lapis pulled at her hair and stood up. “I have to go.”

          “No!” Jasper jumped to her feet and blocked the door, ignoring how Lapis’ face paled. “I want answers! TELL ME WHY YOU WANT THIS?” Jasper winced as Lapis backed up. “I-I’m sorry, shit, I’m so sorry! No, you’re right,” Jasper lowered her voice quickly as Lapis’ eyes watered, “You’re right, I don’t need to know… you can go I just-“

          Lapis ran past Jasper into the archives, and Jasper stared after her, feeling an empty hollow in her chest. Something was wrong, maybe, but she certainly hadn’t made it better. Why was she so STUPID?!

          Jasper sat back down against the wall and put her face in her hands. Why couldn’t she make this work?

          Maybe they were just bad for each other.


	15. Virtually Speaking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Video games bring people together... and rip them violently apart. Uh oh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL (except for one exam but THEN done with school). At least for a couple of years until I apply for grad school.  
> UNTIL THEN, no much crunch times to worry about on the near horizon, so no major distractions from my favourite activity, the writing of fanfic.
> 
> Mind you, it feels like forever since I wrote the last chapter so if this one isn't that interesting it's probably because I'm trying to force myself back into the groove of writing this thing again. But I am plotting some kind of holiday themed chapter in the very near future as well (before New Years anyway at the latest) so hopefully that one will make things interesting again.
> 
> Also. Several of you have been commenting about my Lapis/Jasper pairing. I don't want to give spoilers, and whether they will still end up happy together or not is still up in the air for end game. I am telling y'all nothing. Wait and see.

After Jasper and Lapis drew their “truce”, there was a period of tranquility for the eight girls that were quickly recognised as a clique in onto themselves.

The gay clique. But a clique none the less.

They would sit at tables together to eat or study, they spent plenty of nights in the Scholarship house as a group just watching TV or sometimes Ruby and Sapphire would bring their gaming consoles. It was nice just unwinding as a group, developing inside jokes, telling random stories about their lives, as a whole it was comforting and they had fallen into a rather nice routine of relaxation and mutual support.

Trust a co-operative video game to tear their comfortable group dynamic apart. And just when Jasper thought she was finally getting somewhere with Lapis too. Just the day before, she and Lapis had been left alone at the lunch table together and had had a civilized conversation about why Danica from their shared chemistry class needed to stop talking shit about Rose because she might be skinny but she walked around like she had a bad smell under her nose. Lapis had even laughed when Jasper had made that comparison! And yet, everything had gone horribly, awfully wrong when Ruby and Sapphire had decided to introduce them all to their favourite MMORPG.

“Gem-World Series III: Fusion Fever” was the latest in a line of games known for expansive, detailed worlds, extreme character customization, and complex storylines that involved alien planets and the option to choose factions to either fight to defend their Homeworld, or to defect and protect the other planets standing in the way of expanding the empire. It had a lot of moral ambiguity and realism, which was only helped along by an economy that was entirely run by game users. There was a rather steep learning curve, even more so as this newest expansion allowed for a new playing technique that only a handful of users had learned to use effectively.

But Ruby and Sapphire were the only ones to truly master the technique, which was Fusion Play. When operating as a Fusion, two players essentially controlled one character. It was possible to do this online, but it was typically easier to pull off with two players on a single console because you could actually SEE what your partner was doing instead of relying on voice chat to coordinate limb movements. It was hard to control, but you essentially more than doubled the total power levels of both characters involved, and often gained additional skills such as being able to jump higher or run faster, letting certain areas of the game that would otherwise be impossible to reach to be accessed.

Most players used fusion for combat only, to gain a quick power boost. Some used it purely to access secret areas and defused once there to maneuver better. But Ruby and Sapphire, and their character ‘Garnet’, were the only ones they were aware of who never played as their separate characters. This got varying reactions from the online community. They were well known, but while some players acknowledged how difficult it was to be fused full-time and admired the skill of pulling it off, others insisted they were just taking advantage of the power boost, that fusion was a broken convention that was almost like cheating, and some people thought they were legitimately cheating somehow by manipulating the game to let one person control a fusion character.

Not the case of course. Ruby and Sapphire were just that good. And now they wanted to introduce the rest of their group to the game so they could build a party of adventurers completely comprised of fusions and absolutely dominate the game’s newest super-powered bosses.

The rest of the group honestly would rather just play for fun, but Ruby and Sapphire had managed to unhook their room’s TV just to bring it to the scholarship house, hook up identical consoles to each TV just so all eight of them could play together and god help them they were going to do it their way.

The first step of this was to make teams. Ruby and Sapphire were obviously paired up. Pearl and Rose had quickly paired up as well. Peridot and Amethyst had been getting along better recently, and being roommates had paired up as well.

Jasper had quickly realised that she and Lapis were the only ones left, and therefore would be paired by default. She schooled her face into a neutral (and hopefully not intimidating!) expression to hide her excitement as she gripped her controller a touch too hard.

Ruby and Sapphire turned the systems on, and so began the first gruelling two hours of the game… the character customization screen.

Sure, some of the group were quick to figure out what they wanted. Amethyst figured it out in about 5 minutes and sat back, bored, while she waited for everyone else to figure it out. Peridot took about fifteen minutes, not too bad, and Jasper was soon after that. Lapis took about half an hour, whereas Rose spent a lot of time asking the others what they would recommend for her character which meant she spent an indecisive 45 minutes on it.

Pearl was the one who took two hours. Ruby, Sapphire, Jasper and Lapis on the other console had just started playing instead of waiting. Amethyst and Peridot had slumped against the back of the couch in annoyance, Amethyst particularly moaning that Pearl was taking FOREVER. But Rose was still supportive as Pearl tweaked the most miniscule proportions of her character to make sure it was _perfect_.

But yes, Ruby and Sapphire were already trying to teach Lapis and Jasper the key to operating as a fusion character. It wasn’t going well.

Fusions didn’t have quite the same level of customization as individual characters since they were a new feature and only a certain selection of body structures had been cleared for the different control commands. The form you got was chosen in accordance to what stats got the biggest boost in the fusion.

For Ruby and Sapphire that was their physical attack status and speed, which gave them a serious edge. For Jasper and Lapis on the other hand, they gained in Spiritual Attack and Defense, so Malachite ended up with one of the stranger designs, but it was sturdy and effective enough during combat as long as they were against a wall or preferably a water source since Lapis made her character a water elemental.

It would be pretty effective yes… if Lapis and Jasper could just get in sync with each other. Which seemed to be next to impossible.

“Attack! I said we should attack!” Jasper growled, “We could have taken that hit, it would’ve been worth it-“

“No, we should have dodged! If you’d just pay attention when I tell you to move!” Lapis snapped, wrestling with the controls as Malachite jerked and glitched a bit on the screen. Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other and back at the other two.

“You know… you don’t… HAVE to play as a fusion,” Ruby suggested carefully.

Sapphire was more brutal. “If you can’t get in sync, you shouldn’t even bother trying.”

Jasper sighed deeply, looking moodily at the controller. “Maybe you’re right…”

“NO! We can make this work!” Lapis jostled her controls and managed to get Malachite into the water… holding it at the bottom of the lake. Jasper struggled for a bit, but Lapis was resolutely holding them still.

“What is this accomplishing?” Jasper hissed, scowling.

“If you just listen to me-“

“Let me unfuse! I’d rather just do it on my own!”

“No! You want to work together, and we WILL!”

“Look, I don’t understand why you’re doing this! Video games, o-other things, why are just suddenly… clinging so hard?” Jasper winced as Lapis shot her a glare. “I just… don’t get it.”

“Obviously not,” Lapis snorted, “But I am going to make this fusion work. So just follow my lead!”

Jasper flushed angrily, but managed to struggle to keep her voice down, “Look, we can… do that for a while, but I can a turn to lead too!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Lapis shrugged, and with Lapis giving instructions they slowly climbed out of the lake to stand next to Garnet again.

Ruby groaned softly before looking to the other TV screen. “Is Pearl done customizing yet?”

“Just about…” Pearl said squinting as she made the finishing touches on the length of the nose.

“Urgh, YOU’RE DONE!” Amethyst snapped, reaching over to hit the start button on Pearl’s controller. She squawked as her character finalized and the game started.

“Oh no! The nose is too long! I have to start over-“

“NO!” Amethyst and Peridot shouted. Rose winced and laid a gentle hand on Pearl’s arm.

“I think she looks perfect.”

Pearl broke into a blush and smiled a little. “Well, if YOU think my character is perfect Rose, I’m sure she is!”

The two shared a peck on the lips and Amethyst rolled her eyes. “Can we just PLAY now? Geez.”

Once the other four were on the world map, Ruby and Sapphire started giving them advice on how to control their fusions as well. As long as Pearl spent perfecting her character, it very soon vanished into a fusion with Rose, and both girls lit up as the beautiful figure took form. Their stats balanced each other, and that balance was reflected in a dancer’s body with long blonde hair. Rainbow Quartz, they decided to call their fusion, and quickly picked up how to move her, though they were having trouble figuring out how to actually attack.

Peridot and Amethyst were… less enthused about their own fusion. Both of them had maxed out their physical attack stat, which left Fluorite kind of… top heavy. The fusion looked almost like a reverse pyramid, with tiny legs and a wide torso with four arms bulging. Spinning attacks would likely be most effective, but honestly figuring out how to co-ordinate those attacks was kind of difficult.

“Damn, fell over again,” Amethyst muttered, wrestling with her control stick to get upright again.

“Too far! Too far!” Peridot snapped, wrestling with her own to keep up the other side. Ruby snorted. She and Sapphire probably should have mentioned the different stat combinations would affect the form of the fusion before they started making characters but this was still pretty funny. Sapphire, however, got up to actually show the girls some better methods of keeping upright, and although they couldn’t actually jump or anything, they were still keeping upright enough to actually start practicing how to fight.

“Okay well,” Sapphire announced after a while of figuring out controls, “I guess we’re pretty much ready to try an easy dungeon now, no better training than experience.” She and Ruby had Garnet lead the way to one of the basic dungeons, the three new fusions stumbling after her with varying degrees of success. Rainbow Quartz managed alright, only stumbling occasionally. Fluorite had found that she moved better if she just laid on her side and spun herself forward. Of course being cone shaped she would end up off course and running into walls a lot but it… kind of worked.

Malachite… well, with Jasper grudgingly  following Lapis’ commands they were plodding along, but Ruby was feeling a lot of tension coming from the more muscular girl and was starting to wonder if maybe introducing this game was a bad idea. Video games tore friendships apart all the time after all. At least it wasn’t Mario Party. They would’ve dissolved into chaos half an hour ago.

“Okay, so we’re probably going to hit some low level monsters right away, so be ready to practice weapon wielding. Malachite is mostly mage powers, but everyone else should have their equipment ready.”

Garnet’s high powered metal gloves were already equipped, but the rest scrambled to get weapons ready. Rainbow Quartz had a glittering pink club with spikes on the end, but as it turned out the lightning whip that Fluorite had wouldn’t be much help unless they could figure out how to move and stay upright at the same time. They were working on it.

As predicted, in moments after entering the dungeon a low-level pig-like creature leapt at the fusions, and Garnet stepped back to give the others a chance to try, though ready to step in if they failed too badly.

Since Rainbow Quartz had a pretty basic attack, she was quick to get the hang of knocking out the low level creatures. Rose and Pearl grinned happily as they began to work seamlessly at fighting the hoards of creatures that tried to swarm them.

Fluorite… just really couldn’t seem to get off the ground properly and was taking a lot of damage. Eventually, Garnet came over to help fight the creatures off long enough for Fluorite to unfuse and Amethyst and Peridot began to fight on their own, neither of them particularly upset about it. Just because they couldn’t work a fusion together didn’t mean they couldn’t have fun still playing the game after all, and they were a lot better when they were just controlling single characters.

Malachite was… fine. Really, Lapis mostly just instructed Jasper on aiming and attack charging and they were operating fairly smoothly… but Jasper did not like taking the back seat like this!

“Look, this is fine,” Jasper said through her teeth as Lapis finished a tidal wave attack that took out several pig and bat creatures in one go, “But can I take the lead for a while, maybe?”

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Lapis shrugged, “This works fine, I don’t know why we should change it.”

Jasper growled. “But I should have a say too, what’s the point of playing like this if both players don’t get what they want?”

“You can’t always get what you want, Jasper,” Lapis said sharply. Ruby and Sapphire exchanged glances beside them and shifted down the couch a little, unnoticed.

“This is supposed to be a game Lapis. It’s supposed to be fun.”

“Well, not all games are fun, Jasper!”

“That doesn’t make sense!” Jasper fought to keep her voice down and hissed, “What’s the matter with you? Honestly, you’ve been acting really weird for weeks, and I just… I thought this would be different!”

“Well _I’m so sorry_ this game isn’t good enough for you!”

“That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it!” Jasper’s voice cracked a little, and she swallowed hard against the scream in her throat.

“Um, are… are you two okay?” Amethyst asked carefully from the other couch. Lapis and Jasper looked around, noticing that everyone was staring at them.

“We’re fine,” Lapis said with a frown, “Just… this game can be difficult when there’s too much questioning of leadership.”

Jasper clenched her fists. “Why do you get to be the leader?”

“Because MAYBE I have my reasons!” Lapis shouted and Jasper couldn’t take it anymore and threw the controller down, shooting at sharp glare at Lapis.

“I don’t understand you at all! We never talk, when I try you yell at me, and if I yell back you cry! You just expect me to come when you feel like it, and stay away when you don’t want me around!” Jasper was short of yelling, but only just, burying her fingers in her hair. “I don’t get it! I know I wanted to date you, but that’s what I wanted! To DATE you! Not to be some… some… secret booty call!”

“Woah woah woah,” Peridot said quickly, breaking into the near-shouting match, “Lapis, you’ve been hooking up with Jasper? In secret?”

Lapis’ cheeks flushed and she stood quickly, throwing her controller back on the couch and straightening her skirt. “Well, it’s not a secret anymore, nor will it be happening again.”

“I still don’t understand why it was happening in the first place!” Jasper stood as well, still glaring daggers at the shorter girl. Lapis’ eyes narrowed, and she looked away to the side.

“You don’t need to understand. It doesn’t matter anymore, it didn’t work,” Lapis sighed heavily and headed for the door, pulling her shoes on. Rose stood up now as well.

“Lapis, are you okay? I could walk you back to our room…”

“No, Rose, I’m fine,” Lapis forced a smile at her roommate before her eyes shifted to Pearl and a look of pain flashed across her eyes. With a heavy sigh she opened the door and paused. “Oh,” she said softly as she wandered outside. Jasper clenched her hands into fists before marching into her and Pearl’s bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Rose turned to the remaining girls and looked apologetic. “I’m so sorry about this, but I really should make sure she’s alright…”

“Yes, I’ll check on Jasper,” Pearl said, placing a comforting hand on Rose’s elbow and giving her a small smile. Rose nodded in return and slipped on her shoes before opening the door, her eyes widening suddenly.

“OH,” she flashed a grin at the others, “It’s _snowing!_ ”

There was a chorus of sounds of disbelief and excitement as the group hurried to the door to look out at the heavy flakes falling from the sky, and the snow coating the trees, buildings, and pavement like frosting.

“A real winter wonderland,” Rose said with a soft smile. The other girls mumbled an assent to that. However, it had been warmer in the day when the girls had visited and it was rather late now. Meaning that Ruby, Sapphire and Rose were going to need some kind of jackets to get back to their dorms without catching cold. The trouble with that being that the only clothes that might fit Rose for the journey would be Jasper’s. Pearl volunteered to ask the larger girl if she wouldn’t mind lending out a jacket to Rose for her walk back.

Pearl knocked gently on the door before she opened it, seeing Jasper lying on her bed facing the wall. The thin girl sighed and shut the door behind her, approaching Jasper and wondering what she could possibly say.

“So-“

“Just leave me alone.”

Pearl flinched slightly, but cleared her throat again. This was Jasper, she knew she was just upset. “I don’t…” she wrapped her long arms around her stomach and groped for something to say, “I don’t really know what’s going on between you and Lapis, but if you ever want to talk, I’m willing to listen, even if I don’t have much advice. And… and if Lapis has been doing anything to hurt you-“

“Hurt _me_?” Jasper snorted, finally turning to face Pearl and giving her a look of disbelief, “I’m the one who messed up. I can’t get my anger under control. If I just let her have her way…” The girl sighed and closed her eyes, breathing heavily, “I messed up again.”

Pearl frowned. “I don’t think you… well I mean, yes, I suppose you could have handled things better but that doesn’t mean Lapis hasn’t done anything, she was obviously in a bad mood.”

“And I made it worse.”

Pearl winced, “I… guess it’s possible, but still, being hard on yourself won’t-“

“Look, I get you’re trying to make me feel better, but you’re not very good at it.”

Pearl was hurt by the blunt words. “I… I know.”  Best to just get what she came here for. “Oh, er, it’s snowing outside and Rose wants to know if she can borrow a coat for the trip back to her dorm so she won’t catch cold.”

“Sure,” Jasper shrugged, not appearing to care in the slightest, “There’s one by the door.”

“Thank you,” Pearl said with a final nod as she grabbed the coat and was about to leave Jasper alone. But something made her stop and turn to Jasper one more time. “You know, you were right, when you said both players should have a say. No matter how you handled it, Lapis was the one who was wrong. I know you’re upset, but please don’t blame yourself for everything, it’s really not just your fault.”

With that, Pearl left the room and shut the door, leaving Jasper to her thoughts. She saw Ruby and Sapphire pulling on coats belonging to Amethyst and Peridot and handed Rose Jasper’s coat as well.

“Thank you,” Rose said kindly, pulling on the garment before pulling Pearl into a sweet kiss that left her blushing as she escorted her girlfriend to the door.

“We’ll come by for the game systems tomorrow if it isn’t snowing, so we don’t damage them,” Ruby said as they opened the door to walk into the light snowfall. “Sorry about the trouble though.”

“Hey, wasn’t your fault,” Amethyst snorted.

“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with Lapis and Jasper, but I doubt the game started whatever they’re mad about,” Peridot shrugged, then grimaced, “I can’t believe neither of them told any of us they were hooking up though, Lapis is usually so open about those things, and Jasper should have been… I don’t know… happier?”

Sapphire shook her head, “As far as I can tell, those two seem _really_ bad for each other.”

It was on that note that the students all shared looks of concern for their absent friends before half of them wandered out into the snow, and the other half started cleaning up the mess in the living room.

Pearl really hoped that Sapphire was wrong about Jasper and Lapis. But when she finally entered her bedroom again and saw her friend had fallen asleep with tear stains on her cheeks, she wondered if maybe it would be better if they just stayed away from each other if this was going to be the result.


	16. Secret Snowflakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the girls go into Beach City to find holiday presents for their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. This is super late for a holiday special but... well, at least I have it out. And I have at least one more holiday themed chapter that I need to write. I'm hoping to get it out soon, but enjoy this for now.

The television screens across Diamond Academy flashed to life for the morning announcements in the first week of December. The campus had been coated in a blanket of snow for a while now, and so the first few announcements were to do with safety reminders for inclement weather and icy sidewalks. There was then, however, a special announcement from Headmistress Diamant Jaune. Once again, her office would have been pristine and her visage that of a seasoned army general had it not been for the red and green garlands and holly hanging behind her head on the wall, and numerous paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling amid blue and white balls depicting menorahs and stars of David.

          “Is it on, Deima?” The Headmistress hissed.

          “Yes sweetie, go ahead!” Came a cheerful reply off-screen, to which the headmistress flushed slightly before clearing her throat.

          “Students, it has come to my attention that the holiday season is upon us. As this is the case, I have been consulted on an appropriate school event to get us into the- ‘holiday spirit’. Apparently my initial plan of conducting a winter sports tournament was not considered festive enough and after the events of Halloween having any sort of competition regarding decorations is… discouraged.” Headmistress Jaune coughed slightly. “Anyway, it has been decided that we will be doing school-wide Secret Santa- er, well to keep it holiday-neutral Secret _Snowflake_ gift exchanges. Price limit $20, and will be kept within dormitories to make the exchange easier.”

          Jaune shuffled her papers, “The name of your assigned gift recipient will be sent to you via your school email at 5pm tomorrow. Gift exchange will be the day before winter break. Anyone who does not give a gift will be punished-“

          “Ah!” a noise was heard offscreen as the headmistress’s secretary ran in front of the camera, facing her boss. She was wearing a green elf costume with a jingle bell on the hat. “No! There won’t be punishments, we agreed-“

          “I was trying to make a _joke,_ Deima _!_ ” Came a whine from the blocked headmistress and there was a pause.

          “Oh, ah, sorry, Dia.” The secretary moved off screen again and Headmistress Jaune coughed again, looking a bit flustered.

          “Well I was GOING to say, any who do not give a gift will be punished by being placed on the naughty list and made to work in the cafeteria kitchens the rest of the year!” she grinned triumphantly and waited as she was certain all the students and faculty in the school were chuckling at that moment. Nothing of the sort occurred of course and one might say Deima was resisting the urge to press her face into her hands, but after the moment passed the headmistress resumed a more neutral expression. “But in all seriousness, if any student does not wish to participate in the gift exchange, please email Secretary Deima Melynas by midnight tonight stating your name and your desire to be removed from the gift exchange list.” There was a pause and the screen went blank, but the audio continued. “Is it off?”

          “Um, I think so?” The secretary’s voice was heard, “The new camera you got me for Hanukah is kind of complicated but…”

          The Headmistress then sighed. “There, see? No need to humiliate myself.”

          “It wouldn’t have been humiliation, I dressed up as an elf, you could have worn the Santa hat, you know I wanted to celebrate both holidays with you…”

          “I don’t even like Christmas!”

          “But it’s all festive and stuff! Plus you celebrated Hanukah with me so-“

          “Okay, well, maybe I can wear the hat later tonight if you wear that cute elf costume home…” a strangled sound came from the other lady.

          “Uh oh, I think it’s still on…”

          “WHAT?!”

          There was some muffled sounds and then the audio cut out as well. This was cue for the teachers of the school to loudly clear their throats and get on with their lessons for the day. Though naturally there was some whispering about who various girls hoped to get to give gifts to, obviously wishing for it to be their friends. The only girls in a dormitory with few enough girls to make this likely, however, were those in the Scholarship House, not that it really mattered as those girls were planning gifts to give each other regardless. But that didn’t stop everyone from trying to guess who got which person for the Secret Snowflake draw.

          “Just tell me who you got, Amethyst!” Peridot whined, trying to look over Amethyst’s shoulder at her computer screen.

          “No! That’s not how it works!” Amethyst clicked out of her email and glared at her roommate/queer platonic partner (in crime).

          Peridot smirked and pointed a triumphant finger at Amethyst. “Ah ha! That means you MUST have me!”

          “NO, it DOESN’T Peridot!” Amethyst rolled her eyes. “I don’t have you.”

          Peridot pouted. “So tell me who you DO have!”

          “Why don’t YOU tell me who YOU have first?” Amethyst quirked an eyebrow. Peridot flushed and looked away.

          “I don’t have to tell you.”

          “Oh my god, Peridot,” Amethyst shook her head and turned back to her laptop, ignoring any further whining. Honestly, Amethyst hadn’t got Peridot, but she was pretty sure Peridot had her now given her reaction. Not that she really cared, she was making something for Peridot anyway, but she wondered if it was okay to just give her secret snowflake the gift she already had planned on or if she should make something extra…

          “So what’re you doing for Christmas break?” Peridot asked after a moment.

          “Uh, well my mom is probably going to wait and celebrate Hanukah with me when I get home, since I doubt she wanted to do it by herself,” Amethyst shrugged.

          “Wait, you’re Jewish?” Peridot looked boggled.

          “Uh, yeah? I mean, not really practicing, just kind of ethnically. Well, on my mom’s side, but it’s supposed to pass through the mom anyway so, yeah, we celebrate the major Jewish holidays. But this year I’m here obviously, and she didn’t want me to take time off school and fall behind.”

          “Wow. I never knew any Jewish kids at my elementary school,” Peridot blinked. Amethyst snorted.

          “You probably did, there’s kind of a lot of us out there, but it’s not really something that comes up all the time in conversation. I’m guessing you celebrate Christmas?”

          It was Peridot’s turn to snort. “Yeah, my family’s super Catholic.”

          “What, really?” Amethyst looked surprised. “That must suck.”

          “Well I mean, not my IMMEDIATE family, but like, my relatives all are, so we just kind of get sucked into the Christmas thing… not that I complain, I mean, who complains about getting a bunch of free stuff every year?” Peridot smirked at her roommate.

          “Heh, well, I can’t fault that I guess.”

          “My grandma’s super into the Jesus stuff though,” Peridot frowned and Amethyst quirked an eyebrow for her to go on. Peridot pulled her knees up to her chest on Amethyst’s bed. “I don’t see her much, but… I don’t know, on Christmas she always gets weird around me, calls me her ‘miracle grandchild’ and treats me like I’m made of glass or something… it’s really annoying.”

          “Uh, yeah that’s sounds annoying…” Amethyst hummed and turned her laptop off. “Want to go into town today? I think I need to pick up some more yarn for Pearl’s scarf…”

          “You got Pearl?!” Peridot perked up considerably and Amethyst snorted.

          “I’m making gifts for everyone, nerd.”

          “Oh,” Peridot frowned, “Wait, should I get gifts for everyone too?”

          “If you want to, I doubt anyone will really care if you do or don’t.”

          “Then why are _you_ doing it?”

          “Uh,” Amethyst fiddled with one of her pillows as she spoke, “I guess… well I mean, I guess I just kind of want to? On Hanukah basically only the kids get presents, and even though I usually try to make something for my mom too, I kind of like making stuff for friends. I’ve got some stuff ready for a couple of friends from my home town too.”

          Peridot looked a bit thoughtfully at her hands before she shot Amethyst a grin. “Then, I’m going to get presents for everyone too! Can’t have you looking weird, being the only one getting everyone presents!”

          Amethyst shook her head, but laughed. “Pretty sure you’ve got the market cornered on weird, Peri. But yeah, let’s go. Should we ask Pearl and Jasper if they want to come too or…?”

          “Yeah, why not?” Peridot stretched a bit before climbing off the bed from where she’d been sitting behind her roommate. Grabbing her wallet, she followed Amethyst to the door and turned to knock on Jasper and Pearl’s room.

          Pearl and Jasper had Rose over. Rose and Pearl were sitting on the latter’s bed, pressed against each other casually while Jasper laid on her own bed with her hands folded behind her head on the pillow. They were trying to brainstorm what Rose should get the girl she had received as a secret snowflake even though none of them had ever spoken to her before. It wasn’t going well.

          “Helmi Sininen…” Rose repeated her snowflake’s name thoughtfully as she tapped her chin. “What did we find out about her again?”

          “We found out her maternal aunt is the Miss Melynas, aka the school secretary to the Headmistress,” Jasper said dully, not particularly interested in this girl but for her friend’s sake did the digging that was asked of her. “We know she specializes in the arts, especially the violin, and dancing. Basically getting groomed to be married off, since that still happens here sometimes…”

           “We don’t know that for sure,” Pearl said with a sharp frown, “After all, her aunt has a job with enough esteem to it to get her accepted here without question. Maybe she just likes those sorts of things.”

          “Eh, I guess,” Jasper shrugged, “Anyway, so aside from that we don’t really have a lot to go on, but that should be enough for a stupid meaningless gift from a stranger.”

          “I suppose you have a point…” Rose hummed, “I just wanted to give something really nice! Since she doesn’t come from as rich a family as most of the other girls in my dorm, she’s only staying there because of her aunt.” Rose sighed. “I think the other girls bully her sometimes, but she does seem to have friends in other dorms, so I suppose she’s okay…”

          “You worry about other people too much,” Jasper rolled her eyes.

          Rose sighed, “Well, I don’t know, I just feel like everyone deserves to have something nice at Christmas…”

          Pearl practically glowed as she looked up at her infinitely kind lover. “Oh Rose, I’m sure you’ll find something lovely! Did you want to go into town today to look for something?”

          “Well-“

          There was a knock at the door and the three girls startled.

          “Uh, come in!” Pearl called and the door opened, Peridot and Amethyst bursting into the room and smiling widely.

          “Hey! Me and Peri are going into town to look for presents for people, wanna come?”

          “We were just talking about that!” Rose grinned, looking more pumped at the prospect now, “I think that’s a great idea!”

          “Oh, y-yes!” Pearl nodded quickly, then soured a little as she looked at Amethyst, “Although I did say it first before you burst in…”

          “Yeah, sure, why not?” Jasper sighed as she thought glumly over her world history paper that was due the last day of class and how much she really should have been working on it… not that she was in the mood to do much school work these days.

          The five of them piled on their layers of socks, boots, sweaters, coats and hats that each had in varying thicknesses depending on the temperatures each was used to back home. Rose and Pearl were dressed the most simply with only thin sweaters under nice warm Sub-Zero coats (Rose’s being a considerably more expensive style), while Jasper had on enough layers that she started to bulk out into a human marshmallow.

          Amethyst giggled and pressed a finger into the bulk of the white outer-coat. “Can you even breathe in there? It’s not THAT cold out!”

          “Yes it IS!” Jasper insisted, “Where I’m from, we rarely even get snow at all, I had to buy bigger boots when I realised how deep the stuff got here, I don’t get how you stand it!”

          “Well, you look like someone fluffed a pillow too hard,” Amethyst struggled to keep a straight face before giving up and bursting into laughter. Jasper grumbled, flushed, and pulled the strings of her hood to hide more of her face as the group trudged out into the snow and down the walkways of the school.

          The walk to town took a while, but no one really wanted to splurge for a taxi both ways and they all agreed they would rather take a ride back when they had all their purchases in tow.

          “So, er, I haven’t actually been done to the town yet,” Jasper admitted as they approached city limits, “Is there a mall or something we’re going to?”

          “Oh, no, the town is far too small for that!” Rose laughed, “But there’s a lot of _adorable_ shops along the main street and board walk!”

          “And a craft store, which is where I need to go, I need more yarn,” Amethyst was leading the way with Peridot close behind. Jasper made a disbelieving noise. Amethyst glared over her shoulder. “What, you don’t want to go? I don’t care, we can split up if you want.”

          “No, it’s fine,” Jasper shook her head, “I just didn’t think you’d, what, knit? Crochet?”

          “Knit,” Amethyst looked away again, “Hey, it’s relatively cheap and means more than just buying random crap from Walmart for someone. My mom taught me and I started getting pretty good when I was twelve, I’m thinking of trying to sell some of my better stuff on etsy or something for extra cash…”

          “Hey, good thinking! I can help set up your store!” Peridot said happily clapping Amethyst on the back. Amethyst looked surprised, but soon smiled back before looking quickly away to hide her blush.

          “Aw, well, you don’t have to but thanks anyway.”

          “Um, Amethyst, do you know those people?” Pearl asked suddenly and the group stopped and followed Pearl’s gaze across the street. Three faces very familiar to Amethyst and Peridot were smiling widely and waving at them. Well, two were smiling and waving. Vidalia held up a hand but her face stayed more or less neutral as she popped a gum bubble.

          “Ha! Yeah, we know them! Hey Greg! Hey Bren! Hey Vidalia!” Amethyst waved back as the three crossed the street to meet them.

          “Hey Amethyst! Hey Peridot! Nice seeing you again!” Bren laughed and gave Amethyst a high five.

          “What are you and the crew doing out and about?” Amethyst asked as the group moved to one side of the sidewalk to avoid blocking foot traffic.

          “Oh you know, just taking in the look of the town in the winter,” Bren shrugged.

          “The snow is nice,” Vidalia said blandly before popping another gum bubble.

          “Um, P-Peridot?” Greg said suddenly, looking at a loss for words since he crossed the street.

          “What? OH! Did you have problem with your computer again? Cause I swear I’m going to have to start charging you at this rate,” Peridot snorted but then noticed Greg was slowly shaking his head… at staring at Rose with huge, star struck eyes.

          “No I mean, who’s your friend?”

          Pearl blinked at Greg, glanced up at her girlfriend, and nearly squawked to see the larger girl looking at Greg with a not dissimilar expression. She turned to Greg with a dark look in her eyes before linking her arm firmly with Rose’s.

          “This is Rose. And I’m Pearl. Rose’s girlfriend,” Pearl said in a flat voice.

          “And I’m Jasper, Pearl’s roommate,” Jasper said with a tone of menace. She might have missed her chance with Pearl, but she was still her best friend and she wasn’t going to let some random boy get between her and her girlfriend.

          Greg blinked and a blush painted his cheeks as he saw Jasper as well. He coughed and backed up a step. “Right, um, nice to meet you all! I’m Greg Universe!” he squeaked out.

          “Ah, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Greg,” Rose said in a voice so unintentionally sultry it should be illegal. Peridot and Amethyst exchanged glances and coughed.

          “ANYWAY,” Bren said loudly, trying to break the awkward silence that had descended, “What are you all doing in the town?”

          “Oh, we’re just looking for presents for people, know anywhere good to shop?” Peridot asked and Greg looked grateful for the change of subject.

          “Hey yeah, we can show you some places!” Greg said happily. Pearl scowled.

          “Oh no, I’m sure you can just _tell_ us where to go, no need to come along yourself,” she said with her nose upturned.

          “Well, it would probably be easier if they just showed us, Pearl,” Rose said slowly, with an uncertain look on her face. Pearl flushed darkly, and looked extremely conflicted.

          “I-I suppose you’re right… b-but I just think-” Pearl stammered, but Peridot cut her off.

          “Look, it’s MOST logical for Bren, Greg, and Vidalia to show us around since they know all the best spots. THAT way, we can get our shopping done fast, get some food, and go home in time to wrap gifts and finish the last essays before break.” Peridot folded her arms and looked at Pearl with a smug expression.

          Pearl glared at Peridot now and clung a little tighter to Rose’s arm. “Well, I suppose getting finished quickly WOULD be for the best… fine, lead the way, um… George was it?”

          “It’s Greg,” Greg said, looking unimpressed.

          “Oh,” Pearl said, looking largely uninterested as the poor boy sighed and gestured for the group to follow him down the street.

          “Anything in particular you girls are on the lookout for?” Bren asked with a smile.

          “Well, I definitely need the craft store, but I already know where that is,” Amethyst shrugged.

          “Oh, I need to go there too,” Vidalia said suddenly, which gained everyone’s attention. “For paint supplies,” she clarified.

          “Oh, well, that’s cool,” Bren smiled, “Does anyone else want to go to the craft store?”

          “I wouldn’t mind,” Jasper shrugged, “I might want something to do over the holiday.”

          “Oh right, you’re staying at the school over winter break…” Pearl said slowly, with a frown on her face, but Jasper brushed off her concerned look.

          “It’s fine, I think I’ll like having the peaceful time to study and work on side projects,” Jasper said flippantly, “But yeah, the craft store sounds good.”

          “Well, if no one else wants to go and we want to be done fast, I guess you three should head there while the rest of us go to the store,” Peridot said, looking a little bored and shivery as a cold sea wind blew across the teens.

          “I guess so,” Vidalia shrugged and motioned for Amethyst and Jasper to follow her down the street.

          “So, uh, Greg was taking a good look at Rose, huh?” Amethyst said just a little too loudly as they left.

          “Yeah, he has a thing for tall girls,” Vidalia said.

          “Uuh,” Greg glanced at the others, feeling sweat drip down the back of his neck as Amethyst, Vidalia and Jasper walked away. “So… there’s uh, there’s a gift boutique nearby…”

          “Sounds good to me!” Bren said quickly, grabbing Greg’s arm and pulling him down the street with Rose, Pearl, and Peridot hurrying behind them, Pearl with a deep glare darkening her eyes.

          The gift boutique had a limited selection, though given how small the town was, this was hardly a surprise. Mostly there were various knick-knacks with ‘Beach City’ written on them, such as bobble heads of the mayor and tiny palm trees. There were some stuffed animals too, and a few cute music boxes, and even a small display case with glass figurines and a few decorative miniature weapons if one was into that sort of thing.

          As it turned out, Bren and Peridot were into that sort of thing. Both of them cooed over the cool designs of the weapons while Pearl glared daggers of her own at Greg’s back as he showed Rose some glass figurines of ballerinas and some musical instruments that weren’t too expensive for the secret snowflake price limit. Rose quickly chose a small glass ballerina she thought would do. As she brought it to the cashier though, she paused and laughed suddenly.

          “What? What’s so funny?” Greg asked with a frown. Pearl looked over Greg’s shoulder (not a tough feat) and looked at the figurine in Rose’s hands. A blush quickly painted her cheeks.

          “The ballerina, it looks just like Pearl,” Rose giggled and made eye contact with her girlfriend, “I thought it was unusually beautiful.”

          Pearl flushed darker and smiled to herself. It seemed that she still drew her girlfriend’s gaze. It was true, the ballerina did look something like Pearl, with a similar hairstyle and colour and a regal nose and lithe limbs.

          “Hey! You guys should come over here!” Bren said, waving from the glass case and the others shrugged and went to see what the problem was.

          “Me and Peridot think it would be cool if we all got some of these miniature weapons, see how they all have keychains? They’d be like, friendship markers or something!” Bren said excitedly, “Like, I think that pink sword would be perfect for Rose since it matches her hair! And wouldn’t that whip be perfect for Amethyst?”

          “Oh yes, Rose, that sword would suit you perfectly!” Pearl swooned.

          “You really think so?” Rose hummed, looking over the other weapons. She smiled suddenly. “Then, I think this spear would suit _you_ , Pearl! Look how elegant it is, I could see you fighting with this as a staff!”

          “Really?” Pearl looked at the staff, a small smile tugging at her lips as well, “I… I think you’re right!”

          “How much are they?” Greg asked and Bren squatted to squint up through the glass shelf and read the prices on the bottom of the weapons. She paled considerably and relayed the price.

          “Are you serious?” Peridot gaped, “Why so much?”

          “Er, definitely can’t afford that…” Pearl muttered, “It was a nice thought though.”

          “Well, it’s not that I couldn’t afford it, but I’d have to justify it to my parents for that price and well…” Rose winced, and Pearl quickly assured her that no one expected her to pay for such a thing at such an exorbitant cost.

          Rose went back to the counter to pay for the ballerina and Peridot slunk up behind her to pay for something she refused to show anyone. The group then buttoned up their coats and headed back into the cold street to look for another place to shop. They made their way from candy shops to other small appliance stores, and slowly the group managed to get at least something small for each of their friends.

          Jasper, Vidalia, and Amethyst met up with the group back at Bren’s family’s pizza place and quickly worked their way through two large pepperoni pizzas as they spoke about their days. Apparently Amethyst found plenty of craft materials, so she just needed to get home and get to work on them. Jasper got some yarn as well, looking to take up some knitting herself.

          “So, Greg, you said you’re in a band?” Rose said casually, smiling while Pearl glared at Greg from behind her.

          “Oh, yeah! Well, me and these two,” he gestured to Bren and Vidalia, “I just play the guitar and help write some of the songs.”

          “That’s cool I guess,” Jasper grunted, trying to draw Greg’s attention away from Rose since she could see it was putting Pearl on edge, “Do you think you’re going to pursue that when you’re done school?”

          “Of course!” Greg said excitedly, though Bren and Vidalia made more uncertain noises. Greg turned to them with a stunned expression. “But… I… I thought that was the dream?”

          “Well, I mean, we still have lots of high school to go, definitely not breaking up the band before that!” Bren laughed uneasily.

          “… but we’re going to break up the band?” Greg said softly, looking hurt.

          “My mom expects me to go to college,” Vidalia said slowly, “But I still want to go to art school.”

          “And my mom expects me to do culinary school or business school and come back to the restaurant,” Bren said with a frown, “I mean, we could still have the band as like, a hobby but, I don’t really see it as a career…”

          “Well, I did…” Greg frowned, looking disheartened.

          “Hey, that’s okay!” Rose said brightly, “You can just be a break out solo artist!”

          “Oh, uh, you think so?” Greg scratched the back of his head, “Well, maybe, if I got an agent, and uh, if I got better at writing lyrics…”

          “Yeah, don’t give up on our account, Greg!” Bren smiled, “If you want to be a musician as a career, just think of our band as your practice ground! One day, you’ll be famous in your own right!”

          “Thanks guys, that means a lot,” Greg smiled.

          “And hey!” Amethyst said with a smirk, “If Vidalia teaches me the drums, maybe I could join your new band!”

          “Hey, yeah, maybe!” Greg laughed and the group seemed in better spirits. Peridot hummed and sucked back about half her coke in one go before checking her watch.

          “I think we should be heading back soon, I still have some homework to do…”

          “Oh wow, I didn’t notice it was getting so late!” Pearl said suddenly… maybe with a little too much pep in her voice, “Oh well, looks like we have to be going!”

          “Aw man, I was hoping we could hang out a little longer… but I get it, school comes first,” Bren said with a sigh, “Do you guys want a ride back to your campus? There should be enough room if someone sits on some’s lap or something…”

          “I’ll sit on Rose!” Pearl said quickly, a deep blush painting her cheeks as she coughed, “Um, if she’s okay with it…”

          “That sounds fine!” Rose giggled. Pearl breathed a sigh of relief. Then Rose turned to Greg, “We should hang out again sometime!”

          “Oh yeah! Here, I’ll give you my number so, you know, you can call me if you need me!” Greg grabbed a napkin and quickly scribbled down his number, to Pearl’s horrified look. Jasper frowned deeply as Pearl’s expression morphed into something defeated as Rose thanked Greg sincerely for the number.

          As they headed out to Bren’s car, Jasper flagged Rose to hang back for a moment. Greg and Vidalia headed out to start walking home, and as soon as they were out of earshot Jasper spoke.

          “Why are you flirting with Greg?” Jasper asked bluntly.

          “What?” Rose startled, looking at Jasper with wide eyes and a shaky smile, “What are you talking about? I was just being nice!”

          “I thought you loved Pearl, can’t you see how upset she is?”

          “Pearl knows I love her, it’s fine Jasper.”

          Jasper sighed, “Look, Pearl is insecure about your relationship as it is. You should at least talk to her to reassure her that you don’t feel anything for Greg, okay?”

          “Well…” Rose looked uneasy for a moment, “Even if I did feel something, I wouldn’t love her any less!”

          Jasper looked at Rose with narrowed eyes for a moment. “Then… you should tell her that too,” she said slowly. Bren honked the horn of her car and Jasper gave Rose a last meaningful look before the two tallest girls hurried to climb into the back seat (Amethyst had snagged shotgun).

          The ride home fell into a silent lull as everyone was rather exhausted from walking all day. Pearl leaned back in Rose’s lap, trying to draw comfort, the darken sky outside making it so no one could see the miserable look on her face.

          Rose did, to her credit, feel Pearl’s shoulder’s shake and felt a queasy sensation in her gut. She leaned in to whisper into Pearl’s ear.

          “Are you alright, my Pearl?”

          Pearl jumped a little at the sudden words, but cleared her throat, speaking just a tad too loudly for a whisper, “Oh, of course! Never better, Rose!”

          Rose sighed, the breath tickling Pearl’s ear and making her shiver. “Jasper told me you were jealous of Greg today. I… I just want you to know that I’m poly- er-“ Rose shivered, “I’m…”

          “Poly…?” Pearl blinked, confused.

          “That I… that I could never love anyone as much as you, I only see Greg as a friend, and I wouldn’t jeopardize what we have,” Rose said firmly, feeling only a little sick at not finally saying what Lapis insisted she should have from the beginning. At any rate, a car full of their friends was not the right environment for such a revelation. “I wanted to be with you for years, Pearl. How could some boy I just met compare with that?”

          Pearl felt a glow in her chest and sighed happily, leaning back into Rose. “I-I know that. But… it’s nice hearing it too. I love you, Rose. Only you.”

          “I… I love you too, Pearl,” Rose said holding Pearl around the waist, trying to drive thoughts of the adorable boy from town from her mind, “I could never love anyone more.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   


	17. Home for the Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl and Rose go home to the Quartz household for the holidays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I knew I had to make something for this holiday but I kept drawing blanks till I realised that the only household worth looking at was the Quartz household since it's the only one with two of the girls there... except maybe Ruby and Sapphire but they aren't in a position to be having anything other than pure fluff atm and well... I'm going to move on to other things after this.
> 
> And... yes it's been like two months since my last update. I'm working on this failing. Um... anyway here we go.

Pearl, naturally, travelled separately from Rose when returning home for the holidays. It was rather a depressing thought that crept up on her that she would be spending the season in the same house as her lover but would be forced to either avoid her entirely, or act the part of being a mere servant. But, appearances were everything in higher circles, and Pearl was raised to create the perfect image for herself to best benefit her gracious employers.

            As she had kept her emailed reports to said employers regarding Rose’s status up to date and detailed only enough to imply an observance from afar, Pearl was understandable confused and terrified when, before she had even a chance to visit her parents in the servant’s quarters, she was ushered by the family butler to the home office of Mistress Quartz herself. Swallowing hard outside the door as the butler announced her, Pearl hoped against hope that someone hadn’t reported the fact Rose and herself were… in any sort of contact at all. That would be astoundingly terrible for them both.

            Pearl entered the spacious and well-furnished office with her head bowed meekly, executing a perfect curtsey a respectful distance from the woman who was staring at her with an unreadable expression. Rose’s mother was very tall and broad-shouldered, much like her daughter. Her hair was a softer shade of pink, however, and was cut to her shoulders, though maintained the same volume of curls.

            “Y-you called for my presence, ma’am?” Pearl said with only a slight waver in her voice betraying her horror within as to why she might have been summoned.

            The woman behind the desk let out a sigh and shuffled some papers in front of her, frowning now. Pearl’s breath hitched in fear.

            “I would, firstly, like to commend you on your reports and commitment to this assignment,” the mistress said in a business-like tone. This had not been what Pearl was expecting at all, and the girl’s shoulders sagged slightly in a mix of relief and surprise.

            “Oh! Th-thank you, ma’am!”

            The woman nodded, and a troubled expression crossed her face for a moment. “Indeed, it had been a relief to know she is healthy, her grades are kept up, and she does not appear emotionally troubled. However, through no fault of your own being of the lower class, I have gotten word that she has been spending time with… less savoury individuals at your school.”

            “O-oh, w-what sorts of individuals, ma’am? P-perhaps I have seen them?” Pearl had to know how much her mistress knew.

            The woman shook her head with a sigh. “Unfortunately, the information I have received is incomplete. It was merely from one of her concerned schoolmates, and they did not know the names of all those who had been with her. However, they did mention members of the scholarship house- I’m assuming you were not included as your parents insist you would never disobey orders.”

            “Never, ma’am!” Pearl said quickly, then flushed, thinking fast and under pressure. Rose had to be seen in a good light, but she couldn’t come across as ignorant to what Mrs. Quartz was saying either. “I… I have seen one of my dorm-mates, Peridot, around Rose. B-But that was with Miss Lapis Lazuli as well, and I think Miss Lazuli had the closer relationship with her. I did not report it as I only saw them together in public areas, and not alone, so I assumed it was not a close relationship.”

            Mrs. Quartz nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “I see. Well, if you could kindly inform this… Peridot, that she should limit interaction with my daughter that would be appreciated. I am sure she is a fine, upstanding, and intelligent girl as she was accepted under scholarship, but my daughter as you know is a bit too soft hearted. I am concerned that, even unconsciously, your fellow students of lower social standing might try to take advantage of her kindness to heighten their own status. If this happened, my daughter would be heartbroken.”

            Pearl fought against a frown and managed a serious expression instead. She could not question her mistress after all, and anyway it was clear she came from a place of honest concern for Rose. “I-I understand, ma’am.”

            “Good.” Mrs. Quartz glanced at her papers again before continuing. “In addition, she has been seen frequently in the company of Ruby Vermelho and Sapphire Niebieski.”

            Pearl couldn’t stop a frown this time, though this one in confusion. “But, they’re not-“

            “I know, this is why I say this is not your fault. You cannot be expected to know about the intricacies of higher social circles,” Mrs. Quartz tutted, and Pearl hid her small burst of anger. She would know if she had been given the information to study!

            “While it is true that the Vermelho and Niebieski families are higher class, and have gone to Diamond Academy many generations now, they are... not well spoken of. While the Vermelho Corporation is very land wealthy and owns several vinyards and smaller tourist companies, their business practices have had a history of shady dealings. Competition mysteriously closing their doors or... suspicious mergers... well! To put a long story short, their company has had a lot of bad press. Although there has been some better press lately, with the current head of the company taking pains to assure the public they no longer operate in such a manner, it would look badly for Rose to associate with their daughter too closely. As for Miss Niebieski... well, she is from a family of government workers, though it is suspected to the point of being a given fact that they are involved in espionage. While obviously this is a required branch of government, it is worrisome for my daughter to become involved with it too closely, either.”

            Pearl nodded slowly. “Alright… I… w-what do you wish for me to do regarding… this situation?”

            Mrs. Quartz sighed again, deeply. “While it… pains me to do this, as I fear what it might do to my daughter’s reputation, we might need to have you take on a more active role in her care at school. While strictly speaking, servants are not allowed to accompany students to the academy, I am sure she has little idea that you are of this house. You are awfully quiet after all, I’m certain she has never noticed you.”

            Pearl blinked.

            “Therefore, you shall approach her on campus, befriend her if possible. This way you might get her to confide more information of her doings, and will be able to advise her against more unsavory relationships. I will provide you with a list of girls I would prefer she not associate with and why, as well as some who you should encourage her friendship with.”

            As Mrs. Quartz rifled through her papers for appropriate documents, Pearl gaped in shock. She… was given permission to befriend Rose? On grounds she get Rose to give up her other friendships? That was terrible! She knew Mrs. Quartz wished to be protective of her child, but this… this was beyond invasive! Still, Pearl had to agree to it at least here. She would think about how to actually handle this situation later.

            “Of course, ma’am,” was all she said as she accepted the documents and curtseyed again before heading into the servant’s corridor to meet with her parents, who were naturally overjoyed to see her.

*

            Rose was harbouring many mixed feelings about going home to see her family this holiday season. On the one hand, of course she loved her parents and they did make the effort to be together at Christmas, which was more than some of her schoolmates could say with parents who worked most of the time. Rose was happy to see them, and to be at home again, able to relax in her own room and away from Lapis who had been increasingly agitated the last few weeks since her fight with Jasper, and increasingly depressed with the proximity of the winter break.

            On the other hand, visiting home also meant listening to her parents preach views she did not agree with regarding class and social structure, and answering her mother’s questions about school as though she was not fuming over the fact that she knew quite well her mother was aware of everything she asked about already from Pearl and was just double checking for accuracy (though Rose of course did not blame Pearl for this and had cleared all the information before Pearl sent it).

            It also meant having to largely ignore the fact that Pearl was in her house at this very moment and she could do absolutely nothing about it. That was extremely heart wrenching.

            She still caught glimpses of her in the hallways of course, but those glimpses came fewer than they had even the summer before school began. At first she worried Pearl was trying harder to avoid her, but concocted a risky scheme to contact her. She knew from Pearl’s story of her mother’s vanity that Pearl was the one who usually cleaned her mother’s room, and so she managed to slip into her mother’s room unseen to leave a brief note to Pearl asking if she was alright and if her mother had asked her to stay out of sight.

            Later that night, a note appeared in Rose’s own room from Pearl, and Rose glowed in happiness to read that Pearl was fine, and that she her parents were allowing her more time away from serving duties in order to study and complete school work over the break. Rose couldn’t help but be relieved her girlfriend was not facing any undue trouble.

            That said, Rose also really missed seeing her friends after the first few days, and Pearl most of all, even if they kept a small string of notes going between them both. Rose decided that she simply had to find a way to see Pearl… but every suggestion she made to the girl was met with denial. Pearl insisted seeing each other in her parents’ house was too risky, that she wouldn’t jeopardize Rose’s standing with her parents just for their relationship’s sake.

            “Oh, my Pearl…” Rose shook her head, smiling sadly at yet another note assuring her of her love’s wellbeing and denying her request to see her yet again. She shouldn’t be so worried for Rose! Rose could take care of herself, and… well, she knew Pearl had to want to see her as much as Rose wanted to see Pearl… she was going to make this happen! Pearl would understand.

            Rose quickly deduced that Pearl was leaving the notes in her bedroom during the time when she was normally eating dinner with her parents. That was easy enough to avoid by claiming she was feeling ill, she had been coming down with a seasonal cold anyway and the light coughing and sniffling was enough to convince her father to let her merely take some soup to her bedroom and rest.

            Step one complete, Rose needed only to wait a short time for the door to her room to budge open and a lithe figure to hesitantly stride inside, nervously clutching a piece of paper in her hands. When Pearl’s eyes locked with Rose’s (who was lying on her bed and smiling at her), Pearl squawked and backed into the door that she was let close behind her.

            “R-Rose! Shouldn’t you be at dinner?” Pearl asked with wide eyes.

            Rose slid off her silk sheets and strode over to Pearl, pulling her into a near-crushing embrace, which Pearl melted into. “I pretended to be sick so I could see you, Pearl. I missed you so much. The notes just weren’t the same as having you here with me.”

            Pearl shifted, uncomfortable now and her eyes kept glancing to the door. “I missed you too, really but, I should go. If they catch us-“

            “They won’t catch us,” Rose said, her voice growing husky as she dipped her head to capture Pearl’s lips with her own. Pearl moaned softly into the kiss, tilting her head and giving in to wrapping her long arms around Rose’s neck. She yelped slightly when Rose’s arms wrapped more firmly around her waist to lift her up and push her down onto the bed that had been behind her.

            “R-Rose! W-we REALLY can’t be doing this!” Pearl said frantically looking at the door again, but Rose quickly filled her vision again, looking at her with a sad, pouting expression that Pearl couldn’t deny.

            “I would never force you but… if this is just about them catching us, I don’t mind if they do. So what if my parents catch me with a servant? Or a girl? I can handle anything-“

            “I can’t though!” Pearl squeaked, and Rose looked at her with surprise.

            “What?”

            “I can’t- I can’t handle if they catch us!” Pearl’s breathing picked up. “Y-you’re mother said that I could become friends with you at school to keep other girls away from you, but someone else had contacted her, she was so close to finding out I had disobeyed orders!”

            “Someone else?” Rose asked, feeling a cold, empty feeling in her gut.

            “Yes!” Pearl nodded feverishly, “Someone from school, she said! A-and I just kept thinking, what if she had found out? My parents might have lost their jobs, I would have to leave Diamond Academy AND this house where I grew up, I’d never see you or any of our friends again, my parents would hate me, I’d be disgraced entirely, and… and you would be disgraced too and-“ Pearl choked suddenly, and Rosequickly grabbed a tissue from her bedside, wiping at the tears that came from Pearl’s eyes and feeling lightheaded. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!

            “I-I’m so sorry, Pearl,” Rose said, feeling tears edge at her own eyes. “I should never have tried this- I didn’t think about what this would do to you…” She flushed suddenly. “I was only thinking of myself… I assumed you would only be thinking of me too… you must think I’m so selfish…” she murmured the last part, but Pearl caught it and her head darted up from her lap, looking stricken.

            “I would never think that of you, Rose!” Pearl said quickly, reaching out to cup Rose’s face between her long fingers. “I know you, you’re the most kind-hearted and selfless person-“

            Rose shook her head, but did smile gently at Pearl. “Pearl, you really do think too much of me. I’m just a person, I make mistakes, too.”

            Pearl worried her lip and then reached up and hug Rose again. “You’re not selfish, Rose. You could never be selfish. It’s okay. Can we just… wait till we’re back at school to meet again?”

            “Yes… you’re right, we can wait,” Rose sighed, then groaned and flopped onto the bed beside Pearl and pulled her to her chest.

            “We’ll definitely have fun when we get back though!” Pearl said with a soft sigh.

            “Oh yes,” Rose smirked.

            “Amethyst said she was going to bring some of her tabletop games from home after the break! We can all play together!”

            “Oh…” Rose blinked. “Well, yes that too.”

            Pearl blinked as well. “Wait, what did you think I-? Oh.” Pearl blushed. “ _Oh._ ”

            The two stayed like that for a short time after until Pearl got anxious again and Rose let her go at last. Rose stared at the pink canopy above her bed forlornly. She wondered how they could possibly keep this relationship up outside of school. After all, she wouldn’t fully take over her parents investments until they were both either dead or incapable of handling the responsibilities, and even if Pearl stayed on as a trusted servant… that’s all she would ever be. Pearl deserved more than that… maybe… maybe this wasn’t healthy for her. Maybe Rose needed to start thinking more about what was best for Pearl, no matter how much it hurt…

            Without warning, an image of Greg filled Rose’s mind and she flushed and shook it from her head, absolutely forbidding such thoughts. Even if she couldn’t be with Pearl in the end, she couldn’t be with Greg for the same reasons and… well, she swore she would try being with just Pearl and that was good…

            “Ooooh, why am I like this?” Rose groaned, grabbing her pillow and pulling it over her face. She didn’t know how she was going to last the rest of the holiday.


	18. Spring Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are back together after a very VERY long winter break. But spring is here, and the girls are just happy to be together again!
> 
> Until it is abruptly halted but an unwelcome visitor, and now everything is going to start changing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Hi. Um.
> 
> I was hit by inspiration to continue this story again but... hoooooly crap a lot of Steven Universe has gone by since I started this. When I started this fic, we only had Yellow Diamond's face confirmed and now... jesus YALL SAW PINK DIAMOND RIGHT?!
> 
> Anyway. We had a lot of new characters since then introduced and well, I want to start exploring some of those. And I wanted to pick this story up again.
> 
> So yeah, maybe this chapter is short and maybe it's not amazing BUT I think it is a promise that there will be more of this story to come in the somewhat near future.

**18 Spring Revelation**

            Springtime is for Love, they say. And truly, for the girls at Diamond Academy, at least those in the group centred around the Scholarship House, love was certainly in the air.

            Winter semester had been tough. All the classes seemed to have gotten much harder very suddenly, and with exams approaching, the girls didn’t have much time to see each other as a group. But still, most of them found time to do little things for each other.

            In January, Rose and Pearl had used every opportunity to be with one another now that they were technically allowed to be seen together anyway. They had decided that Pearl would tell Rose’s mother that she couldn’t get Rose to leave her… undesirable friends, but that Pearl would spend as much time by Rose’s side as possible to dissuade her from following them along on any questionable misadventures. The group shared a laugh about that one.

            Sapphire had taken Ruby on a romantic moonlight stroll along the frozen beach in mid-February as a Valentine’s Day gift. They had gotten a little… exuberant… and ended up soaked and freezing, and the resulting colds dissuaded them from trying to mess around in the snow again, though it had been nice at the time, according to Ruby.

            Peridot and Amethyst had spent a memorable day in March hiding behind some bookshelves in the library, hitting random girls with spitballs. Peridot had been surprisingly into it, though Amethyst had managed to gross her out by kissing her to steal a spitball she was wetting so she could shoot it herself. Peridot had whined so loudly about that they’d almost been caught and had to run around the stacks of books and down the stairs giggling madly the whole time.

            And Jasper… Jasper had started to wonder about Lapis.

            After the Video Game Incident, Jasper hadn’t really spoken to Lapis up until the winter break. Over break, Jasper had stayed at the school, training and thinking mostly between her Facebook conversations with her friends. As much as she wanted to get over Lapis, she couldn’t seem to forget the many forays in the library, and how very strange Lapis had been acting.

            When everyone came back from break, Jasper tried to track Lapis down to get some answers, but it seemed that she was actively avoiding the larger girl. Jasper was used to that, however, and instead about two months after being unable to catch her alone, Jasper actively began inviting the whole group together for hang outs. Now she saw Lapis again… but she wouldn’t talk to Jasper between curt words to direct questions. Jasper was getting frustrated, and she knew that the rest of the group was also getting uncomfortable with Jasper’s attempts to get Lapis to listen to her. Pearl had suggested Jasper give up but…

            Argh, she should. Jasper knew that Lapis clearly wanted nothing to do with her, but at this point Jasper wasn’t sure she even wanted to be with Lapis anymore. She just wanted… she wanted to know why. Why did Lapis start hooking up with her? Why was she so weird about it? What… what hadn’t worked? She had mentioned offhand that she didn’t expect it to go like this… but what did that mean?

            Jasper didn’t manage to get Lapis alone to ask her what was wrong. She found out at the same time as the rest of the group- when Lapis’ father came to take her out of school.

*

            “… did that just happen?” Amethyst had asked in the immediate aftermath of the fiasco, and certainly it was the question on everyone’s mind. They had been sitting in the grass near the Scholarship House, all of them, even though Rose had to drag Lapis out claiming that she hadn’t been feeling well and the nurse had told her to get some fresh air while she went over the test results.

            Everyone had expressed condolences to Lapis, but Lapis shrugged them off. After a little bit of silence, Peridot piped up.

            “So, uh, Lapis. Did you gain weight?”

            “PERIDOT!” Pearl gasped in scandal.

            “It’s not a bad thing!” Peridot waved her hands, “She’s usually waif-thin, I don’t know, she’s not fat, I’m just… I don’t know! She said she was sick, do you have an ulcer or something?”

            “I don’t know,” Lapis muttered, pulling her legs up to her chest to hide her stomach. “Why would you even ask tha-“

            “ **LAPIS**!" Lapis paled, horribly. Her hands automatically wrapped around herself. 

            "Oh no... oh no not here, not now..." Lapis looked to her friends and shivered.

            "COME HERE **NOW**!”

            The sound of a loud man’s voice made Lapis pale considerably, and she started to shake as she saw her father heading toward her from the school building, flanked by school officials. Lapis was grabbed by the upper arm and pulled into a standing position. Rose had tried to protest, told Mr. Lazuli not to hurt Lapis but it did no good. The officials told the other girls to stay where they were. Mr. Lazuli was loudly scolding his daughter, telling her she had brought shame on their family name and would never be back to this Academy if he had anything to do with it.

            The other girls watched Lazuli get dragged off with complete disbelief. They tried to get up and follow, but the school officials ordered them to stay where they were, a few hanging back to watch them as Lapis was pulled further away toward the main building.

            “Did… did Lapis do something wrong?” Peridot asked blankly, “Like, get caught cheating or something?”

            Rose wrung her hands. “I… I don’t know. She didn’t say anything to me!”

            “Well, something had to have happened!” Jasper snapped, looking fretful, “Can he really just come and take her away like that? Can’t we do anything?”

            “I don’t think so…” Sapphire frowned. “Although… I don’t think Lapis would cheat. This might be something else.”

            “Do you think her dad found out about her uh… you know…” Ruby side eyed Sapphire but it was Amethyst that finished the sentence.

            “About her fucking other girls? Maybe,” Amethyst’s fists clenched and she pounded one on the ground. “Damn it! This isn’t fair! Who cares if Lapis likes girls or whatever? It’s no reason to stop her going to school!”

            Peridot nibbled her lip. “But… how would anyone find out? Lapis isn’t like Rose and Pearl flaunting their relationship everywhere. Lapis was always really, really careful about if we were seen together like that. She’d always have deniability too. Her dad was looking like he had video evidence that she was doing something wrong.”

            The girls thought for a moment, then Pearl spoke slowly.

            “You said she hadn’t been feeling well, Rose? And Peridot… you’re right, she has gained a little weight around the middle…”

            The girls slowly caught on one by one and exchanged shocked looks.

            “You think Lapis is PREGNANT?” Amethyst said loudly. “Why would she be pregnant?! She doesn’t fuck dudes. If she’s careful about who sees her with girls you’d think someone like that would wear a condom if she was with one.”

            “Not only men have penises, Amethyst,” Pearl chided with a scowl to Amethyst’s quick apology. Then Pearl paled and turned to Jasper, who looked like she had swallowed something very painful indeed. “J-Jasper, you don’t think…?”

            “Oh my god.” Jasper stared off in the direction that Lapis had disappeared and then struggled to her feet. “I… I have to go!”

            “Jasper, wait!” Pearl yelped as Jasper raced off at a pace none of her friends could hope to catch up with, nor could the school officials that followed her in hot pursuit. Instead, Ruby, Sapphire, Rose, Pearl, Peridot, and Amethyst were left on the grass in shock, hoping that Pearl wasn’t correct this time.

*

            “If she’s really pregnant, she won’t be coming back,” Sapphire said quietly to Ruby back in their dorm room. “I don’t know what her father will do… he’ll want to know who ‘fathered’ the child for sure…”

            “I don’t know what to do!” Ruby cried as she paced back and forth across the room. “I want to do… something! How can he just… take her out of school! Gah! I’m so angry!”

            “… well, we should be rational. We don’t even know if she really is pregnant. She might have done something else to make him mad.” Sapphire folded her hands and looked down at them. No matter what she said, she felt cold inside, numb. And she was so, so worried.

*

            Peridot was chewing nervously on one of the fingers on her robot arm as she sat at her computer. She had been something of a nervous wreck since Lapis was dragged off, and only Amethyst’s urging got her to do something other than huddle in a ball of panic.

            “Did you find anything useful?” Amethyst asked, hanging over Peridot’s shoulder.

            “Not yet,” Peridot admitted as she scoured the legal website she was on, and then flipped back to the requirements for attending Diamond Academy. “This is an international school though, so even if we find a reason here why she should be allowed to fight her dad and come to school anyway, it might not apply to her home country.”

            “Argh! I know that!” Amethyst huffed, walking back to her bed and collapsing on it face down. “But there has to be something! Maybe we can just… I don’t know, get on a plane and go save her ourselves?”

            Peridot paused and looked at Amethyst over her shoulder. “You know I uh… never really got the impression you even liked Lapis that much? Why are you so worried about her now?”

            Amethyst sighed, staring at the wall. “Well, for one, she is still part of our crew whether we hung out together a lot of not. And two… this is obviously bothering you a ton. I want you to feel better too, you know?”

            Peridot blushed and kept searching.

*

            Pearl had no idea what to do with Jasper. After Jasper had run off, everyone had felt… extremely awkward and after only a little further discussion had quietly returned to their rooms to process what had happened. Jasper had returned to the Scholarship House about an hour later. She had been pale and shaking, and her eyes had a pink tinge to them. Pearl didn’t know what to say as Jasper laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling without speaking.

            But well… Pearl couldn’t keep her mouth shut forever. So after several minutes passed she asked, “Did you… did you catch up to Lapis?”

            There was no response for a while, then finally a tiny nod. Pearl felt her breath catch.

            “Did you find out why her father…?” Another nod. “Is it because…” Pearl cleared her throat and mimed a baby bump on her stomach. Jasper’s eyes flickered toward Pearl and she let out a tiny snort, closed her eyes, and nodded again.

            Pearl debated asking her last question, but she had to know.

            “Is it… yours?” Jasper started shaking again, and Pearl saw a sheen of tears under her eyes. “Oh _Jasper_ , I’m so sorry…”

*

            Rose sat in her dorm room, staring at the other bed that had been stripped of its distinctive blue sheets. All Lapis' little bits of sea glass and seashells that lined the top of her bookshelf, the books themselves… it was all gone. Her desk, while always neat and clean now was barren.

            Lapis was gone. Just like that. Rose couldn’t believe everything had been moved out so fast while she was out, it was like Lapis had never been there at all. Except for the photos Rose had on her phone, of course. She knew Lapis had been there but this room felt so silent without her now.

            Lapis had been her first real friend at the Academy. How could she just be… gone?

            What would happen now? Her parents wanted her to have a roommate to keep her out of trouble. She had gotten lucky with Lapis, who would take her place?

            Rose felt a lump rise in her throat. She wanted to find Pearl… but… Pearl would be with Jasper just then. She couldn’t break down in front of Pearl when she was already dealing with that…

            Rose’s phone began buzzing. She looked down at it, expecting it to be Pearl.

            It wasn’t.

            She picked up the phone, read the caller id, and answered without thinking.

            “Greg?”

            _“Uh, hey! Rose? This is your number right? Uh, this is going to be a weird thing to ask out of the blue, and this might not be a good time, but um, do you want to be in a music video?”_


	19. Music Video Homewrecker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greg invites Rose to help shoot a music video with Bren and Vidalia.

            Rose shivered as she walked down a street through a suburb of tiny houses in Beach City, squinting at the house numbers and triple checking the address Greg had texted to her. The breeze was blowing coolly that early spring afternoon, and she was a little nervous. She had never been in a music video before, and she didn’t know Greg very well. She was a little out of her depth.

            She initially had asked Greg if she could bring Pearl or one of the other girls with her, and Greg had said that was fine, but things had fallen through on a few fronts. Jasper was, understandably, still very upset, and Pearl wanted to keep her company. She said she would go into town with Rose anyway, but Rose had declined her offer as she agreed that Jasper shouldn’t be left alone at the moment.

            Ruby and Sapphire were in the middle of an online tournament apparently. Amethyst wanted to go but Peridot threw a fit and told her if she didn’t actually study for the test today (Amethyst insisted she didn’t have to study) then Peridot would clean her side of the room again. It worked, though Amethyst was pretty sullen about it.

            And Lapis… hadn’t come back. Probably wouldn’t be coming back. Rose really needed something to take her mind off of that.

            Rose had already agreed to be in Greg’s video and didn’t want to disappoint, so she went to town by herself for the first time. It felt a touch deviant, she knew her mother would never approve. But then, when did her mother ever approve of what she did?

            At last, the next to last house on the block on Maple Street was number 166. It was small even by the standards of the street, partially brick but partially metal siding that was a little rusted along the bottom. Rose knew that Greg was… from humble origins, but it was definitely pretty far from anything Rose had grown up with.

As Rose approached, all doubt she might have the wrong address fled her mind as loud music suddenly started up from the garage, so loud it shook the door for a minute or two before there was a screeching noise and some yelling she recognised from Greg. The sound died down and Rose grinned and hurried to the garage door, hammering on it.

            “Greg? Open the door! It’s me, Rose!”

            “R-Rose? Ah shoot. Okay, hold on, go around to the side door and I’ll let you in!”

            “Hi Rose!” Bren’s voice echoed from the garage as well as Rose made her way around to the white side door just as Greg wrenched it open. His face was covered in sweat, and his bangs were plastered to his scalp, but it was clear the rest of his hair was pretty fluffy and had been washed that day. He was wearing a black shirt with ripped sleeves and ripped jean shorts, and had a grin from ear to ear.

            “Hey Rose! Glad you could make it!” Greg said with bright eyes as he stepped aside, “ _Mi casa est su casa_! Make yourself at home!”

            “Oh! You’re too kind, Greg,” Rose said gently as she entered the tiny garage. There was no car inside it, as Rose would expect, but quickly noted that the door to the garage was completely unusable as it was full to the ceiling with shelves of… stuff. And the walls were just… piles of stuff. Somewhere from between the piles of junk was a long orange extension chord that led to the centre of the room where a space had been cleared to make way for a couple of what appeared to be very old amps, Vidalia’s drum set (at which Vidalia sat, looking bored as ever), a microphone, and a couple of electric guitars.

            “Uh, sorry it’s pretty cramped in here, heh, most of the house is like this…” Greg scratched the back of his head and looked embarrassed. “You’re probably used to better…”

            “Eh, I like it myself,” Bren shrugged, “It’s cozy.”

            “I think it’s cute,” Rose said with a gracious smile, “I’ve never seen so many things in one place! I’m sure they are all very special to your family.”

            “Huh? Oh! Well, yeah, I guess… I mean we could still probably stand to get rid of some stuff but… uh, anyway!” Greg ran over and picked up his guitar, holding it in the air. “Time to shoot a music video!”

            “Yay!” Rose cheered, and blushed as Vidalia and Bren snickered. “What is it?”

            “Phht, you just sounded so sincere,” Vidalia shook her head.

            “It’s good though!” said Bren, “Refreshing. Yeah, let’s get to shooting!”

            “Alright, what do you want me to do?” Rose asked.

            “Well, the first thing you can do is…” Greg’s eyes glinted, “Help us move all this equipment to the backyard!”

            Rose stared at Greg for a moment. “O-oh?”

            “What, did you think we were shooting in here?” Bren laughed, “We can barely move! Come on, the back porch should be dry enough. You can help Vidalia with her drums, they’re pretty heavy but you look like you can handle it.”

            “You know how to lift things, right?” Vidalia asked bluntly, “Or do you usually pay someone to do that for you?”

            “I can help!” Rose smiled again, though perhaps a touch sharper than she normally would. “Not a problem!” She rolled up the sleeves of her pink sweater and got helping, picking up Vidalia’s bass drum in her arms and grabbing a cymbal stand, shuffling sideways to the door and out it before Greg and bren had their guitars unplugged.

            “Damn, girl can LIFT,” Bren said bluntly as the three band members watched Rose go.

            “Yeah… she sure can…” Greg said in a dreamy voice until Bren bopped him on the head. “Ow! What was that for?!”

“She has a _girlfriend_ remember? Don’t be a homewrecker, Greg!”

“Right! Right! Girlfriend… I know,” Greg sighed, gathering up his guitar and amp and shuffling for the door, only to nearly run into Rose coming back for another load. Greg stumbled and fell backwards, only to be grabbed by Rose just before his head hit the concrete. As if by reflex, the large girl scooped him up fully into her arms bridal style, and there was a moment where they both just sort of stared at each other while Bren squealed nearby.

“S-sorry!” Greg sputtered finally, squirming until Rose put him down. “Should have been watching where I was going! Well uh… I’m going to set up outside!” And the boy ran out the door past Rose at top speed.

Rose cleared her throat awkwardly. “Um… what else needs to be carried out?”

*

            Once all the equipment was set up in Greg’s backyard on the patio, Bren produced number of accessories to dress Rose up in. By the time Bren was done, Rose wore a large pink feather boa, a headband with a couple of long metal wires poking out of it, and big white star-shaped sunglasses.

            “Um, what am I supposed to look like, exactly?” Rose asked as Vidalia started using blue sparkly blush to cover her cheeks.

            “Um, like, an alien girl I think?” Bren suggested. “The theme for the song is space… but we don’t have much of a budget so… I think this gets the idea across well enough.”

            “Oh, well, it’s definitely interesting,” Rose said as she flicked one of the wires, smiling as it bounced around.

            “It’s more than interesting it’s…” Greg put on a pair of big round sunglasses, “Out of this world, baby!”

            The girls stared at Greg for a moment before all of them burst out laughing, even Vidalia.

            “Are you s _erious_?” Vidalia snorted.

            “Greg, reign it in, would you? ROSE IS TAKEN!” Bren shouted into Greg’s ear, making the boy blush hard.

            “I know! Geez! You don’t have to keep telling me, I’m no homewrecker!”

            Rose licked her lips slightly, and felt a tiny lump at the back of her throat. Oh, if only she had at least tried to explain to Pearl about being polyamorous before… maybe she would have understood… gah, she was not going to let one cute boy get between her and Pearl. She took a deep breath and smiled again.

            “Well, are we ready? What should I do?”

            “We’re ready alright!” Bren grinned, “Just do exactly as I say, cause I have a vision, and I’m going get it realized!”

*

            “We’re ready? We’re ready right?” Greg asked from the middle of the shot.

            “Give me a second!” Bren laughed from off camera and then ran to the stage, grabbing her guitar and stood next to Greg. “You can aim the camera, right Rose?”

            “”Got it!” Rose’s voice came from off screen and the camera zoomed in too far on Greg’s face, then out a little again to put both Bren and Greg in frame, though not quite centred. “Ok, ready!”

            Vidalia started up on the drums, and both Bren and Greg started running a few chords on their guitars.

            Bren started to sing. “ _Some… say I have no direction… that I’m a lightspeed distraction… but that’s a knee-jerk reaction…”_

The camera zoomed in on Bren’s face a bit more, blurring and clearing as she kept singing. Her voice was very rich, a deep alto. “ _Still, this is the final frontier… everything is so clear… to my destiny I steer…”_

            Bren grinned and looked up at the sky. “ _This life in the stars is all I’ve ever known!”_

 _“Aaaah,”_ Greg sang back up.

            “ _Stars and stardust and infinite space is my only home!”_

 _“My only home,”_ Greg echoed.

            Bren grinned and slammed down a hard chord on her guitar, and the scene changed. Greg, Vidalia and Bren were standing on the roof of Greg’s house, the top of a ladder just on the edge of the shot. They looked just a little concerned for a moment, but soon started dancing to the rough overlay of music. Cheesy edits of lightning bolts and fireworks exploded around them.

            Bren and Greg’s voices sang over this visual. “ _But the moment that I hit the stage, thousands of voices are calling my name! And I know in my heart it’s been worth it all of the while!”_

The scene changed again with a board wipe effect. Now Bren, Vidalia and Greg were in the local music shop, standing next to a shelf with a number of CDs on which were taped printed pieces of paper with “Bren and the Friends” written on them. Vidalia, Greg and Bren were pulling the CDs off the shelves and holding them their arms as the music kept playing. “ _And as my albums fly off of the shelves, handing out autographed pics of myself! This life that I chose isn’t easy but sure is one heck of a ride!”_

Greg’s pile of CDs slips and falls on the ground. A man who clearly worked at the store came into frame, yelling and waving a fist as the teenagers, their camera woman behind them, ran at top speed out of the shop.

The scene changed to the backyard again, facing the fence. The band was facing the camera set up on the ground, making the shot mostly sky and did make the shot seem a bit unique. The smoke machine Bren had managed to find pumped fistfuls of smoke along the ground. Edits of light flashing following Rose as she stepped into frame, dancing with a lot of arm waving. “ _At the moment when I hit the stage, I hear the universe calling my name! And I know deep down in my heart I’ve got nothing to fear!”_

The band welcomed Rose and danced with her. The scene changed again, now facing the band again, lights flashing as the band played their instruments and Rose played a tambourine next to them, grinning from ear to ear. Greg threw his head back and sang his solo line. “ _And as the solar wind blows through my hair, knowing I have so much more left to share, oh wandering spirit that’s making his way through the cold atmosphere…”_

“ _Fly like a comet…”_ Bren and Greg sang together.

“ _Soar like a comet…”_ Bren sang.

“ _Crash like a comet…”_ Greg sang.

 _“I’m just a comet…..”_ Both sang together and the last lines petered out. The screen went black.

*

            Greg, Bren, Vidalia, and Rose gathered around Bren’s laptop and were silent for a moment.

            “That… was terrible,” Vidalia said finally. Then she smirked. “I kind of love it?”

            “I mean, the video rough around the edges, but the song is really solid!” Greg said excitedly, “This song might actually make us the real deal!”

            “Well, we worked pretty hard on it…” Bren giggled. “What did you think, Rose?”

            Rose’s eyes were glistening. “Wow… how did you make the lightning effects?! Can I have a copy to show the other girls?”

            “Oh no, do NOT show Peridot my terrible editing, I don’t need the snark attack…” Bren buried her face in her hands.

            “No, it’s really good!” Rose insisted.

            “It’s really not,” Vidalia shook her head, “I mean, I didn’t expect it to be, it’s not like we had any idea what we were doing.”

            “We should do more videos, though!” Greg said, still looking very excited. “Oh man, we should send this in to an agency! It’d be so cool if we made it big like this!”

            Bren and Vidalia shared an awkward look. “Um, Greg, remember? We were only going to do this until-“

            “I know, but, well think about it!” Greg insisted, “If we got famous, that means making lots of money! You could play your way through school!” Greg then began miming air guitar and making guitar noises with his mouth. Rose giggled, though Greg’s bandmates looked less enthused.

            “We aren’t showing anyone this video.” Vidalia looked thoughtful for a moment, then amended, “Except I guess Amethyst and the others. Even Peridot… they’ll think it’s funny anyway.”

            “Yeah, let’s just play it for laughs, our band is kind of a joke anyway,” Bren laughed.

            “No, it’s not!” Greg snapped, stamping his foot. “We all work really hard at this, or… I thought we did…”

            “Greg…” Bren sighed, “I get it, I do, but I… I just don’t think we’re on that level. Sorry.”

            Greg huffed, and folded his arms, looking down petulantly. “Well, I don’t want to give up.”

            Rose looked at the bandmates with a worried expression. “I… I do honestly think your song is very good. I like the video too! I really do…”

            Vidalia looked at Rose and raised an eyebrow. “Would you send this into an actual music agency though?”

            Rose winced. “Well…”

            “Exactly,” Vidalia said as though that decided the matter. Without another word, Greg left his bedroom and practically slammed the door behind him. The girls exchanged looks.

            “He’ll get over it, Greg never stays mad long,” said Vidalia.

            “We can’t lead him on,” Bren said carefully, “We can’t let him think we’re going to be a full time band when we won’t. I know he dreams of getting big and getting out of this town but…”

            Rose bit her lip, then went to the door. “I want to talk with him.”

            “Your funeral,” Vidalia scoffed as the door opened and shut.

*

            “Greg?” Rose asked gently when she entered the living room and saw Greg curled up on the couch, knees to his chest with his face buried in them. “Greg, are you okay?”

            “Urgh… yeah…” Greg sighed heavily and flopped over on his side, still in the fetal position. “Just had my dreams trampled but I’ll get over it…”

            Rose gingerly sat next to Greg on the couch, feeling a touch worried about the despondent tone from such a sunny person. “Well, they really don’t need to be… trampled. You know, even if Bren and Vidalia don’t want to keep the band going, you could still make it as a solo artist!”

            “Yeah, right…” Greg snorted. “Seriously, all I can do is play the guitar. My voice isn’t that great, and Bren is way better at writing lyrics than I am…”

            “So what? Music isn’t always about lyrics!”

            “It’s… not?” Greg peeked over his knees at Rose. He looked adorable, and Rose fought a losing battle with the blood rushing to her cheeks. She tried to look determined, so the blush would just look passionate.

            “Well, of course not! Music is about passion!” Rose said with fervor, “After all, is it not the soundtrack of a movie that tells the audience what they should feel? As long as you have feeling behind your songs, your words won’t matter nearly as much and…” Rose ducked her head. “And your voice is good, so don’t worry about it. If you really want this… you should try!” Rose’s fists clenched. “Don’t give up doing what makes you happy! You shouldn’t let anything stand in the way of what you want!”

            Greg and Rose stared at each other for a few moments. Then Greg seemed to come to himself and coughed a little, unfolding himself into a less tense position.

            “That… wow, you… you should probably be an inspirational speaker or something…” Greg laughed awkwardly and sat up properly. “I guess… I guess I’ll think about it anyway.”

            “You should!” Rose said with a decisive nod.

            “It’s not like I didn’t already know Bren and Vidalia didn’t want this I just… man, the idea of going out on my own… it just seems like it’s so much harder than being with the people you care about.” Greg leaned against the back of the couch.

            “I know that…” Rose leaned back as well. “When I went off to Diamond Academy I thought I was going alone… but I met new friends soon enough. I’m sure if you go off on your own, you’ll meet new people who will be important to you, too. You never know when you’ll meet the people you’ll want to spend the rest of your life with, after all.”

            Greg side-eyed Rose, then trained his eyes on the wall across from them again. “Yeah… you never know…”

            “You just need to be bold and seize your opportunities!” Rose said resolutely. Greg nodded.

            There was silence for a while. Rose vaguely wondered what Bren and Vidalia were doing in Greg’s bedroom by themselves. Then Greg broke the silence.

            “Um… I… I think I like you.” Greg swallowed. “Uh, um, I know you’re taken, but I think you should know, since I don’t… I don’t want you to… I don’t know. I just want you to know, I guess. I’m sorry.”

            Rose’s eyes widened. “No… no don’t be sorry. I… I like you, too, Greg.”

            Greg’s face paled horribly. “Oh no, oh no Bren was right, I’m a homewrecker.”

            “No, no, you’re not!” Rose said quickly, “I mean, we haven’t done anything! J-just because we like each other… I still love Pearl, I’m not going to cheat on her. Admitting we have feelings for each other isn’t cheating… right?”

            “Right… right, of course it’s not,” Greg said, sinking back into the couch cushions. “We just… now we both know. That’s all. Everything is fine.”

            “Yes… nothing wrong with just… being honest,” Rose nodded slowly. More silence.

            Both made tiny whining noises before jumping off the couch.

            “It’s getting late! I’d better head back to the academy!” Rose said quickly.

            “Better go check on Vidalia and Bren so they don’t go snooping around my room!” Greg said at the same time. Both hurried off in opposite directions, faces red, and having no idea what they were going to do if and when they saw each other again.


End file.
